Deux Huit Huit’s semi-speculative identity for Ascension playfully renders the future of farming

Marking an unconventional collaboration, Montreal-based interactive design and branding studio Deux Huit Huit have developed a whimsical identity for marketing agency ILOT’s sour beer creation – made in partnership with vertical farm INNO-3B and microbrewery Riverbend to celebrate their successful year. Named Ascension, the beer champions the locality of Quebec through its collaborative nature whilst playful predicting the future of farming via the beer’s headline illustration that renders a vertical farm in a futuristic landscape. “Ascension means an action of rising into the air, as well as an ascent towards an ideal or success,” producer Marie-France Falardeau tells us, explaining the in-house illustration’s inclusion – recalling ILOT’s first description of the beer as ‘the local nasturtium of a farm of the future.’ “The illustration suggests this idea,” Falardeau explains, “as precious aromate, nasturtium shoots, are cultivated in a new vertical farming technology,” embodying this organic and technological future through the playful visual language and semi-speculative design. Speculation made optimistic through the vibrant and saturated use of colour. Striking an appropriate balance of futuristic forethought and organic ephemera, Deux Huit Huit’s choice of typefaces also denotes the vertical nature of the beer’s creation; opting for Good Type Foundry’s Byrd and Neue Montreal from Pangram Pangram. “Byrd suited this task perfectly with its rounded, chunky and retro vibes aligned with the playful illustrated scene we designed,” Falardeau explains, whilst Neue Montreal was implemented on a more practical level. “Neue Montreal was chosen as a secondary typeface for the supporting text and label information,” she concludes, “its timeless design was appropriate for the more functional needs of the label.”