THIRST BRINGS STRATEGIC EDGE TO M&S CRAFT BEER

Thirst has redesigned Marks & Spencer’s own-label Craft Beer range, creating a packaging system that balances credibility with retailer identity. Bold typography, flavour-led palettes and flexible graphics give each beer personality while ensuring cohesion. The rollout demonstrates how strategic design enables own-label brands to compete confidently with specialist craft competitors.

Thirst, the Glasgow and New York-based creative agency, has unveiled its latest project with Marks & Spencer, redesigning the retailer’s own-label Craft Beer range. The rollout across stores marks a significant moment for M&S, as the new packaging system positions its beers alongside specialist craft brands while retaining the retailer’s distinctive identity.  

Craft beer is widely regarded as one of the most expressive categories in packaging design, with every can telling a story and every brewery projecting a personality. Thirst’s challenge was to create a design system that gave M&S credibility in this competitive space, while ensuring the brand remained unmistakably its own.  

The solution placed brewery partnerships at the heart of the design. Bold typography, flavour-led colour palettes and contemporary graphic patterns were introduced to create a flexible system that works across core, premium and alcohol-free beers. Each SKU has its own personality, yet the range feels cohesive, reinforcing M&S’s reputation for quality and innovation.  

The redesign demonstrates how strategic packaging can elevate own-label products to compete with the best in the category. By blending creativity with credibility, Thirst has crafted a system that not only enhances shelf impact but also strengthens consumer recognition. The predominantly black can architecture improves brand blocking, while distinctive treatments for ranges such as Hazy beers ensure clarity of navigation without losing family identity.  

Thirst’s global perspective, working from Glasgow and New York with a team selected for talent rather than timezone, has been central to the project’s success. The agency’s philosophy of thinking in rituals rather than channels—building brands that people crave, share and swear by—has translated into a design that moves culture, sparks connection and drives results.  

The collaboration underscores the importance of trust between creative partners and retailers. Thirst expressed gratitude to the M&S team for entrusting them with the transformation, highlighting how such partnerships can redefine categories and set new standards in own-label branding.  

As craft beer continues to evolve, M&S’s refreshed range demonstrates how design can be more than decoration—it can be a strategic tool for storytelling, differentiation and growth.