Studio.Build — Ute

Ute - WYIPA*

August 29, 2019

Introducing Ute – 7% WYIPA (*West Yorks IPA). A collaboration with our friends, furniture maker Plaey Workshop, designer James Ockelford and award-winning brewery and taproom North Brewing Co.

Ute, named after the Norwegian phrase ‘Utepils’ [to enjoy a beer outdoors]— is a new immersive beer experience through a series of visuals, sound and taste.

Originally starting out as a small promotional project for Plaey Workshop, the concept grew quickly into something much bigger. Inspired by birch trees, the main material Plaey Workshop use in their designs, the whole idea of the new beer took its cues from our home West Yorkshire and the outdoors that surround us.

We designed the packaging for Ute which is based around the idea of sunlight peeking through leaves in the forests over a series of four can designs. Alongside this we also created a series of promotional posters, which used photographs captured by Joanne Crawford. Each poster is based on a different location in West Yorkshire- with each individual place meaning something to each collaborator (ours was Otley)! Each poster features its own latitude and longitude unit, giving the customer the opportunity to visit the exact spot the beer and packaging was influenced by.

Not only did we make a beer we made a record too! Ute sits alongside an accompanying 7” record (designed by us), sound commissioned by James Ockelford at Refold. Created by sound recordist Ethan Montgomery and singer/songwriter Declining Winter (Richard Adams), the record features an A side of field recordings from the forests and the brewery, whilst the B side features a new song by Declining Winter, written specifically for the project. Alongside the 7”, a 14-track compilation tape will be released too.

Ute will launch in London at All Good Beer, Hackney Downs on Friday 30th August, before it’s Leeds launch at Colours May Vary on Saturday 31st August. Alongside the beer, the records and a limited run of A3 posters will also be on sale at each event!

Big thank you to Simon Bucktrout and the team at Team Impression for sponsoring the print!

See the full project now, or read more about Ute on Creative Review.