Graphic Design students brew up new designs for new visitor destination

Bedford-based family-brewer Charles Wells has challenged Bedford College students to come up with branding design ideas for its new multi-million investment brewhouse and visitor destination, due to open to the public in early 2020.

The £13 million brewery development will have capacity to produce up to 5.5 million pints a year serving Charles Wells’ 197 pub-estate across the UK and France. The site will also house fantastic facilities for the community, including a visitor centre offering tours of the brewery, a bar and restaurant that can be hired out for events and conferences, as well as a retail space stocked full of exclusive beers brewed on-site.

In March, 20 students from Bedford College’s graphic design department will have the opportunity to pitch their individual creative design ideas for the brewery’s branding to a team at Charles Wells, who will review and choose one concept to develop further. The panel judging the entries includes former Bedford College BA student Marcus Finch, who studied graphic design and is now working at Charles Wells as a Retail & Brand Marketing Executive.

Charles Wells’ commercial director Peter Wells said

The local community is at the heart of the Charles Wells business, not just in Bedford where we’ve been based since 1876, but across all our sites. We want our new brewhouse development to be a destination that locals are proud of and want to visit so getting them involved from the outset is crucial. Bedford College is full of talented and creative individuals and we truly value their ideas and feedback on what would work well in terms of the look and feel of our new branding. It’s a great opportunity all round to channel some fresh thinking into an established brand.

Jeffrey Tribe, graphics lecturer at Bedford College added: “The creative challenge from Charles Wells is to come up with an identity for its new home to include a logo and supporting merchandise and branding for one of the new beers. It is a fantastic opportunity for our higher education graphics students. It’s especially inspiring to have one of our former graphic design alumni, Marcus Finch, now working at Charles Wells and demonstrates how the business supports our students from education to employment.”

For further information about Charles Wells pubs, please visit: www.charleswells.co.uk