WOLF HOUND

After years of perfecting their nitro beers, the Wolf Hound team from The Flagship Brewing Company needed an identity that could secure taps across New York City, from those at historic Irish pubs to high-end bars. Winning over pub owners, taproom curators and other formidable gatekeepers was the next challenge.

A core truth informed our design: New York City’s Irish craftspeople and laborers didn’t build only infrastructure; they built belonging. Wolf Hound’s identity honors that legacy, blending the warmth of a 19th-century Irish pub with the boldness of contemporary craft beer. At the brand’s center is Red, a slightly grizzled canine mascot, hand-drawn to convey loyalty, grit and pride of heritage. Typography fuses early American industrial type with 1970s photolettering, a visual bridge between heritage and modern taste.

Within weeks of unveiling its new design, Wolf Hound was facing down Guinness at the Old Town Bar and Restaurant and O’Keefe’s Bar and Grill, two of New York’s most storied Irish pubs, as well as at The Smith, a nationally recognized brasserie chain with locations in New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

To build momentum, we launched Hound’s Day, an annual celebration at The Irish Exit in Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station. Sales conversations with distributors and restaurant groups shifted as the new brand identity and cohesive merchandise made the pitch more confident, memorable and credible. What began as a tap-only nitro beer served in New York bars is now expanding beyond its regional distribution and venturing into nationwide packaged can production.