Freddie Hall’s identity for Half Full seeks to dismantle the stigmas around men’s mental health

Using design to counter the stigmas surround men’s mental health conversations, British design graduate Freddie Hall has conceptualised Half Full Brewing Co – a fictional brewery provoking the topic at hand, raising awareness of the incredibly high male suicide rates in the UK, and realigning the conversation within a more recognisable and non-confrontational environment.

Essentially repurposing the language found in pubs and breweries, the identity utilises the existing structure and familiarity akin to it in order to more effectively convey their key message to their primary audience. The context also flips the preconceptions of the relationship between alcohol and mental health by highlighting the positives it brings via the social engagement innate to drinking, rather than the idea of alcohol abuse in response to poor mental health.

In a clever concoction of colour, copywriting and concept, the identity for Half Full Brewing Co exudes a candid tone of voice, succeeding in seeming universally approachable in the process – something mirrored in the calming choice of colours. “The colour palette aligns with masculine convention yet conveys inviting and conversational tones,” Hall tells us, whilst simultaneously working consistently across the digital and physical spaces the brand occupies.

Similarly, Hall’s typographic team of Displaay Type Foundry’s Tobias alongside Production Type’s Signal Compressed and Pangram Pangram Foundry’s Object Sans is innately flexible in its tone – able to be applied in both a playful and sincere manner, mirroring the duality at the core of the project. “The brutal, industrial and condensed letterforms of Signal Compressed comply with the archetype of traditional masculinity,” Hall concludes, contrasting this with the gentility, friendliness and invitation of Tobias to create a highly considered, contextually important and thematically heartening brand.

Freddie Hall