Hajduk is a Croatian football club founded in 1911, based in Split, in the south of Croatia. Together with Zagreb-based rival Dinamo, it’s one of the two largest and most popular football clubs in Croatia. Less then six months after launch, our design helped them make over one million HRK (Croatian Kuna) in sales.

 

Following the examples of successful international clubs who continually raise funds through various branded content, Hajduk decided to brand its own much anticipated beer. Osijek brewery created a new beer taste that Hajduk fans chose through careful taste tests done in several cities in Croatia. From their partnership, the club receives 1 HRK from each liter of beer sold (2 bottles/1 HRK). Upon researching the club's history, symbolism and memorabilia, we focused on a simple symbol of the first Hajduk flag. It featured a red, blue and white colors with a lowecase letter “h”. This flag served as the main inspiration for the label concept. The goal was to capture the motion of passionate fans waving Hajduk flags at the game. Inside the oval shape of the label, the flag’s diagonal lines become even faster and more dynamic, emphasising the sports character of the brand. The metallic silver foil adds a touch of sophistication and freshness to the label. Since this is a club beer, the fonts and colors are inline with their established visual identity guidelines. Mandatory technical elements were: brown glass bottle, Hajduk 1911 name and other text, size and shape of the neck and front label and usage of the club logo.

 

Only 24 hours after being introduced to the public, the label has been accepted extremely well by the fans, quickly spreading through the social media and fan-pages. Critics would have preffered to see a low-key, very mainstream label. However, we are fans of honest, authentic design. Since Hajduk 1911 Pils is a new brand of beer it would’ve been pointless to make it look like a classic german beer. Our job is to make this brand stand out — not blend in. Fans don’t hide their affiliation and passion for their club, and we wanted this energy to be evident in the new label. It was very satisfying to work on such an iconic and important brand, and our collaboration with Hajduk continues through upcoming adaptations of the design to aluminium cans and PET bottles.