Growing a Hospitality Brand Through Creative Partnership
Client Brucan Pubs
Project Building a hospitality brand designed to grow with clarity, consistency and character.
Why It Mattered
Hospitality moves quickly.
Menus evolve. Seasons change. Promotions come and go. New venues open. Every new campaign creates another opportunity for a brand to drift.
The real challenge wasn’t launching the brand.
It was ensuring that, years later, every new venue, promotion and product still felt true to the original thinking.
Building the Foundations
When James Lyon-Shaw set out to establish Brucan, we knew the identity needed to do more than launch a new hospitality business. It needed to support the ambitions of a growing group.
Together, we developed a flexible identity system for both the Brucan brand and its individual venues. Each pub would have its own personality while remaining unmistakably part of the wider family.
Rather than creating a collection of standalone assets, we built a framework that could evolve. Typography, illustration, colour and layout worked together to establish a visual language that still supports the business today.
Designed to Grow
Since launching in 2018, Brucan has continued to evolve.
New venues have joined the group. Seasonal campaigns have become annual fixtures. The Brucan website has strengthened the group's presence, while the Brucan Brewing Company has expanded to include products such as Brucan Brew and A.N.Other Gin.
One of the most enduring developments has been Enjoy.
The word "Brucan" translates as Enjoy, so we chose to make it part of the brand's everyday language. It appears consistently across headlines, email subject lines, table talkers, social campaigns and promotional materials, encouraging customers to Enjoy a summer cocktail, Enjoy festive dining or Enjoy the latest drinks launch.
It's a simple idea, but one that quietly reinforces what Brucan stands for at almost every customer touchpoint.
“Gerry has been an invaluable business partner and instrumental in our success”
James Lyon-Shaw
Brucan Pubs Director
A Creative Partnership
Over time, the relationship has evolved alongside the business.
The larger creative moments still begin with me. Seasonal campaigns, product launches, new identities and the core creative direction are developed within the original framework before being rolled out across the wider business.
Alongside that, Brucan’s internal marketing team keeps the day-to-day communications moving. My role isn’t to replace that team, but to support it, helping maintain the clarity and consistency that become harder to protect as a business grows.
Many businesses don’t need a full-time creative director.
They do benefit from having someone who remembers why the brand looks, sounds and behaves the way it does, and can apply that thinking to whatever comes next.
“Gerry has an in-depth understanding of our ethos, values and passions and ensures our branding remains true to our business”
James Lyon-Shaw
Brucan Pubs Director
Built to Last
One of the most rewarding aspects of this relationship is that the identity still feels as relevant today as it did when it was first introduced.
Not because it has stood still.
Because it has been allowed to evolve without losing the thinking that shaped it.
That idea has become increasingly important to me over the years. I explore it further in Who Remembers Why?, where I reflect on why brands drift over time, and the role long-term creative partnerships can play in helping them stay true to themselves.
Good brands don't remain consistent by accident.
They remain consistent because someone keeps returning to the original thinking.
Looking for more than a designer?
I work with organisations as a long-term creative partner, helping them create strong foundations and supporting them as their brands grow.