What’s your brandimal?

What with brexit, brexmas, now megsit and lordy lord knows what else they’ll come up with next — we thought we’d jump on the bagon. So here’s our contribution to the downfall of the English language: What’s your brandimal? Tomos & Lilford have adopted the cormorant. Here’s why…

The cormorant is known as the non-waterproof water bird. To catch their prey, they plummet into the water like black bullets. Then they stand, wings outstretched, pterodactyl-esque, waiting for their wings to dry in the wind.

Other seabirds have waterproof wings. But the cormorant’s feathers become waterlogged. If they didn’t hang them out to dry, standing vulnerable for hours on end, they would risk dying of cold.

Perhaps the cormorant shouldn’t exist, perhaps it shouldn’t be able to survive this harsh world.

And yet its one disadvantage — its waterlogged wings — allow it to sink like a stone, where others are buoyant, and so catch its dinner with ease.

Tomos & Lilford feel that, against all odds, they survive. More than that, they triumph over other waterproof-winged breweries.

Our junior designer, Rosie, came across this beautiful cormorant illustration on Pinterest. She contacted the artist, Richard Bawden, now in his 80s. Richard is a painter, printmaker and designer and his work is featured in the London Transport Museum, the Tate and the V&A. He was happy to support this unique brewery in exchange for a case of beer. What a legend.

Read Hybrid Studio’s case study on the rebranding of Tomos and Lilford here.