Cry Me a River Gose for Driftwood Brewery

Creative Agency: Hired Guns Creative
Printer: Westkey Graphics
Photography: Sean Fenzl
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Driftwood Brewery
Location: Nanaimo, Canada
Packaging Contents: Beer, Nixe tears
Packaging Materials: Glass, vinyl

For our rebrand of Driftwood Brewery’s Gose – a rare style of wheat beer originally brewed with the slightly salty water of its namesake river in Germany – we developed a narrative based on the Nixes of German folklore, river-sprites who would lure sailors to their death with beautiful song. We illustrated our water spirit with a spectral purple complexion, emerging moonlit from the deep, dark waters that conceal her wicked grin. Her sinister aspect creates narrative tension as she wades under her dramatic counterpart, the mournful title: Cry Me a River.

For our spirit’s song, we wrote lyrics in dactylic verse, with the watery feel of lullabies and sea shanties, quickening to a fatal finale.

Hear my cries through the mist, gentle sailor,
That your skiff may be tethered unto.
Though the moonlight is pale, and I paler,
In the black river, brack with my tears,
Let my song reach your ears,
Let me reach my availer,
That tomorrow the cries are for you.