High-Proof Creative

A creative agency that works only with the craft beverage trade, High-Proof Creative builds brands and packaging for distilleries, spirits makers, tea and tonic producers and other drinks businesses. The company says it was founded in 2018 by a writer who had worked in food and drink publishing and agency marketing before setting it up. It describes itself as woman-founded and woman-owned.

Labels, bottles and cans designed for shelves

Most of the work is visual. The agency designs logos, labels, bottles, cans, closures and multi-pack cases, and it presents each piece as a way to help a product stand out where it is sold. Its project list runs from a vodka label and a closure design to a gin logo, a can for a tonic brand and a bottle for a distillery's new range. Photography for drinks brands is part of the same offer.

Brand building as a complete job

Branding is treated as a whole job rather than a single artwork. The agency offers a branding workshop that works through what a drinks business stands for, and it describes that work as the groundwork for labels and launch materials. Product launch marketing sits on top of the design work, so the packaging and the campaign that introduces it are planned together.

Social media, content and websites

The agency produces social media and content for beverage brands and runs a blog for drinks makers, with articles on social media for alcohol brands, packaging trends and how distilleries can measure return on digital marketing. Websites are built and maintained for clients, and search optimization is offered as part of the same package.

Paid advertising across the main platforms

Paid campaigns are run on Google, Facebook and Instagram. The company manages these campaigns for its clients, which keeps the advertising aligned with the brand the agency has already designed.

Consulting on labels and regulation

Beyond design and marketing, the agency offers consulting and training in marketing and in label approval with the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, known as the TTB. The company says this advice is aimed at helping producers get labels through the approval process as well as marketing them well.

Clients and the craft drinks world

Distilleries and other drinks makers, many of them small independent brands, make up the client base. The founder is the author of a guide to Portland's craft distilling scene and sits on the board of a distillers' guild, and the company says its work draws on that knowledge of the craft drinks world. It describes itself as an award-winning branding and marketing agency and says readers of a spirits trade magazine have recognized its design work.