What do you associate with Lusatia? Wolves? Open-cast mining? Lakes? Sorbs? In 2014, greenlab explored the regional identity of Lusatia. How can local resources—economic, ecological, and cultural—be used to counter deindustrialization and migration? As communication designers, we focused on a food product that conveys regional identity like no other: beer. The Kircher brothers, for example, brew beer in Lusatia. The Kircher Brewery is a family business founded in 1898 in Drebkau near Cottbus, between Upper and Lower Lusatia, between open-cast mining and the Spreewald. Sorbian is hardly spoken in Drebkau anymore, but like many places in the region, the town is bilingual – German-Sorbian.
The Kircher brothers see their company as a specialty brewery. Their specialties are Gurkenradler and Serbske Piwo – beers with strong regional ties. In this niche, they are trying to hold their own against competition from international brewery corporations. Originally, the brewery hoped we would help them with the visual presentation of Serbske Piwo. This specialty is brewed according to a local Sorbian tradition from hops, water, malt, and honey and – because the German Purity Law excludes ingredients other than hops, water, and malt – cannot be sold as beer.
Focusing on just one of the brewery's products did not seem sensible to us. It was important to us to rethink the entire business, restructure the product range, and expand the customer base. If the business is to continue to exist, even though its customers in Lusatia are being dug away for the sake of lignite, new customers must be won. Lusatia is sparsely populated, but Cottbus, with its university, and nearby Berlin have potential. We propose redesigning the brewery's entire product range and all media on the basis of a new corporate design – including renaming the umbrella brand. The term “Kircherbier” is to be established as the umbrella brand for all varieties. The design of the umbrella brand draws on the brewery's distinctive lettering from the 1920s. The lettering, which was once based on the signature of Grandfather Kircher, has been optimized in terms of legibility and scalability.
The brewery's new slogan is: “A Kircher rarely comes alone.” This is not meant to allude to the Kircher twin brothers, but rather to beer as a foodstuff that conveys regional solidarity and promotes conviviality.
We are convinced that the new visual identity is suitable for establishing the Kircher brewery beyond Lusatia.
Supervisor(s)
Prof. Susanne Schwarz-Raacke, Prof. Dr. Zane Berzina, Prof. Steffen SchuhmannRelated projects
