Heritage has its hassles 

Tooheys is a brand that has well over a century of stories under its belt—from the legendary tales of John and James Toohey in the 1860s, to the six musical notes that made us all ‘feel like a Tooheys or two’ in the 1980s—however, as iconic as these stories are, the brand lacked a single anchoring truth to hold it all together. Remaining practically untouched for the better half of a decade, Tooheys had become overly reliant on communicating its heritage, neglecting modernity and contemporary relevance.

From a practical point of view, the brand's design system was ridged and inflexible, making it difficult to adapt to various touch points required of a modern brand. All this laddered up to a general lack of confidence and relevance – a far stretch from the brands heyday swagger of the 1980s!

To revitalise Tooheys, a balance needed to be struck between respecting its past and having the courage to push it forward, creating a unified brand story and visual identity that would resonate with both new and existing audiences. 

Our process began with an extensive brand immersion, digging deep into the Tooheys archives to better understand the evolution of the brand and the many layers and iterations the brand and packaging had over the years. Here we were able to gain inspiration from successful moments from the past to build more meaning into the brand’s contemporary expression.

Reviving an unsung hero

The first element for review was the Tooheys logo. The brand’s typographic wordmark had in recent years been overshadowed by the dominant stag head, which sat centrally above it. This unbreakable logo 'lock-up' created an irregular shape, proving almost impossible to use successfully across anything other than portrait-oriented formats. The decision to separate the two key brand assets created opportunity for greater brand flexibility and for us to explore the inherent strength of the Tooheys 'red plate' wordmark.

The previous version of the wordmark had become condensed and cold, with an almost digital look courtesy of the zero-shaped double OO characters. To refresh the wordmark, we looked to the past—back to the brand's heyday—and drew inspiration from bolder, more confident expressions of the Tooheys wordmark. 

The humanist quality of old were also to be revived through contrasting ‘thick and thin’ letterforms, and the addition of a subtle serif flair, which had also been a feature at various stages in the brand marks evolution, giving it a sense of warmth and approachability. 

Working alongside renowned typographer David Foster, we developed a new wordmark that felt recognisably ‘Tooheys’ that would stand the test of time as a modern classic.

We also crafted the words "NEW," "OLD," and "EXTRA DRY" from scratch, using the same researched thinking to create a cohesive connection between the three product SKUs and the new Tooheys wordmark.

To create the foundational brick within the brand system, the striking red plate—which has sat behind the wordmark since the brand's inception—would become the critical final element.

Standing proud

The origin story of the Tooheys stag is rather simple — the founding brothers, John and James Toohey, frequented a local pub in Sydney called Bald Faced Stag Hotel which featured a stag on top of its facade. They loved ‘The Stag’ so much they adopted it as the logo for their now-famous beer. But, while the stag had become a recognisable symbol of the brand, it lacked meaning… a perfect opportunity to embed more Tooheys personality and significance.

Over time the stag had evolved, from full bodied in a passive sitting position, to a symmetrical, front-facing posture, featuring sharp and prominent antlers. This evolution lead to a stag that felt hyper-masculine, aggressive, and somewhat reminiscent of a hunters trophy… not representative of what the brand proclaimed to stand for.  

We wanted the Tooheys stag to reflect the brand's strength and its reliable character, while also feeling alive, strong, and proud. So, to capture the brand's values within the stag's posture, we embarked on a rigorous deep dive into stag symbolism and coat of arms heraldry. After much research, we settled on a posture known as a ‘stag trippant’, which involves a standing stag with a single hoof elevated. This also involved a decision to move away from the ‘stag head couped’ and revert back to a full-bodied stag, similar to that first adopted by the Tooheys brothers.

Working with international illustrator Miloš Milovanović, we crafted a new stag graphic reflecting the values of Tooheys, facing forward towards the future, with its head tilted proudly backward in acknowledgment of its past. And with these brand updates, Tooheys now has a fresh, modern look while still staying true to its heritage and values.

An enduring truth

A brand with such and long and rich history should be able to celebrate their established date. However, simply stating Est. 1869 both further distanced the brand from where it came from, while also being a missed opportunity to share the brand’s enduring truth. To give more weight and meaning to this date, we established an emotional throughline that felt as true today as it did over 150 years ago. The new brand asset 'Legendary Refreshment Since 1869' was created to feature on all Tooheys products, to show that some things will never change. 

Confidence in simplicity 

After an in-depth audit, we revealed that the brand's packaging had become overly cluttered with graphic language which over-indexed on communicating its heritage. By removing all unnecessary detail and legacy assets, we were able to free up real estate for the core brand assets to shine. The hero product SKUs, OLD, NEW, and DRY, were effectively sub-brands defined by strikingly simple three lettered words. These names deserved as much visual presence on the packaging as the Tooheys wordmark itself.

The challenge was to find the right combination of these three core brand assets. Detaching the stag from the Tooheys wordmark was a liberating decision that allowed the team to challenge the packaging layout hierarchy. The stag was shifted to the bottom of the label design, finding a natural overlay with the hyper-scaled product names. This layering effect unlocked an impactful visual tension and gave the design a much-needed modernity that flowed through from packaging to signage, point of sale, and key visuals.

The idea that there was a yin and yang relationship between OLD and NEW spearheaded the decision to shift OLD back to its original black and gold, a perfect contrast to the blue and silver of NEW. The limited colour ink options for printing cans necessitated leveraging the aluminium substrate to achieve the effect of a silver stag for both NEW and TED.

Tooheys EXTRA DRY—fondly known as TED—required a different approach since it was aimed at a younger consumer. For this reason the historic established date was removed allowing space for the recognisable white diagonal slash that has been a defining element of the beer since its release in 2007. To create further distinction we again rearranged the hierarchy of elements, elevating EXTRA DRY above the Tooheys wordmark, then using the flexible overlap of the stag to connect the two.

Taking the design principles of the can and bottle packaging we then developed artwork for various outer packaging formats including 6 pack clusters, Bottle wraps, 24 slabs and 30 can carton.

The new packaging design gave the Tooheys brand a fresh, modern look, while simultaneously reflecting its rich history and enduring commitment to brewing great, refreshing, and always reliable, beer.

A bold new system 

How the Tooheys brand would come to life off pack was almost as important as how it showed up on can. Our aim was to develop a brand system that allowed for maximum flexibility across all touch points, so that whether featuring on a tap badge, a pub sign, out of home signage, or a social post… each and every piece of communication would feel connected and cohesive. 

Working with a relatively clean slate, we wanted to bring a modern simplicity to the brand architecture and recapture some of the bold confidence of the past. To do this, typography and tone of voice would play an important role. Working closely with type foundry HEX, we customised a variation of Franklin, bringing the letterforms into alignment with the Tooheys wordmark and the classic Futura Condensed Extra Black typeface that had defined the brand during the 1980's.

How do you feel?

It’s been roughly forty years since the enduring six-note jingle became Australia’s national earworm. But despite the passage of time, the underlying sentiment of ‘how do you feel’ remains unchanged, representing a sense of unity and camaraderie that goes beyond simply drinking beer. 

Leveraging the visual power of the Tooheys red plate, we gave new power to this classic line, with the creation of the 'How do you feel? red strip' — a bold line of typeset copy designed to cut boldly across imagery, bringing a sense of Tooheys branded energy to the page. Designed in both horizontal and vertical arrangements, the strip also creates a natural split screen composition, allowing for a dynamic combination of both lifestyle imagery and product photography to feature within a single key visual.

In addition to the strip, a typographic pattern was created to house the brand line "I feel like a Tooheys or two". Set within Tooheys brand blue, this typographic, repetitive, watermark acts as a perfect graphic—almost choral—response to the question of which there is only one answer.

To round out and enrich the brand system are a series of Tooheys 'easter eggs'. Hidden within the typographic pattern, historic trademarked artefacts such as the "Here's to'ee" man, the Tooheys OLD pint icon, the beer barrel and the original sitting stag logo, heralding back to various periods in Tooheys rich history.

Here’s to'ee the next 150. 

This brand revitalisation has given the Tooheys brand a fresh, modern look, while simultaneously reflecting its rich history and enduring commitment to brewing great, refreshing beer. Chris Allan, Head of Core Beer Marketing at Lion Australia, said, “Tooheys is a brand that has over a century and a half of stories under its belt — so there is a challenge in moving too far away from the past and our rich legacy. We feel the new packaging pays tribute to our proud heritage as well as modernising in a way that allows the core brand assets to shine.”