{"id":15461,"date":"2025-10-21T17:29:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T10:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/how-havas-london-put-design-at-the-centre-of-asahi-super-drys-new-brand-platform\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:29:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T10:29:29","slug":"how-havas-london-put-design-at-the-centre-of-asahi-super-drys-new-brand-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cstc.vn\/blogtsk\/how-havas-london-put-design-at-the-centre-of-asahi-super-drys-new-brand-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"How Havas London put design at the centre of Asahi Super Dry\u2019s new brand platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

At a time when Asahi Super Dry is expanding its global footprint, Havas London<\/a> was tasked with building a visual system that could unify the brand without flattening its character.<\/p>\n

The result, created in collaboration with Havas Creative Network agencies across Asia, Australia, and North America, is Seek What Is Unique \u2013 a global platform that connects Japan\u2019s best-selling beer with its roots, while giving it the tools to speak consistently across markets.<\/p>\n

The design system was crafted to respond to the brand\u2019s need for scalable coherence.<\/p>\n

For years, the beer\u2019s visual world had suffered from inconsistency and fragmentation, challenges that couldn\u2019t be solved by a single, dapper campaign. What Asahi needed instead was something more enduring \u2013 a repeatable, flexible visual engine capable of translating across markets, formats, and touchpoints.<\/p>\n

Havas London\u2019s refreshed design system for Asahi Super Dry<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to move away from the idea of a consistent look and feel, and instead become obsessed with a consistent feel,\u201d says Lorenzo Fruzza, chief design officer at Havas London.<\/p>\n

\u201cA \u2018look and feel\u2019 mindset traps you in guidelines, straightjackets and templates. The harder \u2013 and more rewarding \u2013 job is making the brand feel the same on TikTok as it does out-of-home, or in a real-world experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

This focus on feel over surface signals a wider shift in how Havas London sees design\u2019s role \u2013 not as aesthetic veneer, but as structural thinking embedded at the core of modern advertising.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent the past 20 years fighting for design\u2019s place at the table,\u201d says Fruzza.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re finally in a position where design has a real voice \u2013 not as decoration at the end, but as structure from the start. My team sits upstream, in the same conversations as strategy and comms, because design\u2019s job isn\u2019t to make things pretty; it\u2019s to codify creativity, to work out how ideas break apart and come back together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Havas London\u2019s refreshed design system for Asahi Super Dry<\/p>\n

He adds that many agencies still misunderstand what it means to \u201cput design at the centre.\u201d \u201cIt means inviting design thinking in at the beginning,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

Havas London put this principle into practice for Asahi Super Dry, developing the brand world and campaign as two sides of the same system \u2013 each anchored by the brand\u2019s defining idea, Seek What Is Unique.<\/p>\n

The line draws directly from Asahi Super Dry\u2019s origins. When it launched in 1987, its crisp Karakuchi taste \u2013 a Japanese term for a clean, dry flavour \u2013 broke away from the sweetness typical of other beers. This differentiation helped redefine Japan\u2019s beer market, embedding that instinct for distinction deep within the brand.<\/p>\n

Today, that ethos shapes not just Asahi\u2019s storytelling, but the very structure of its design language. Across product photography and the graphic system, the team uses dynamic angles and intersecting perspective planes to lead the viewer\u2019s eye, and draw them in.<\/p>\n

The tagline, set vertically<\/p>\n

Even the tagline follows this principle. It\u2019s set vertically \u2013 a subtle nod to Japanese typography, but also a deliberate moment of intrigue within the layout.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt changes the rhythm of reading,\u201d Fruzza explains. \u201cIn the UK, we read left to right, but here the viewer\u2019s eye moves downward, leading them through the message and finally to the logo. They\u2019re small decisions, but all of them stem from that same idea \u2013 what does Seek What Is Unique mean for the design system itself?\u201d<\/p>\n

At every point in the creative process, Havas London set up guides and codes instead of rigid rules. Three of these became central.<\/p>\n

The team leaned into retrofuturism, which gives the brand its cool, cinematic tones and subtle neon accents; a focus on minimalism, seen in the pared-back compositions and use of red against silver; and juxtaposition, drawn from the precision of the craft and the vibrancy of the drinking experience, a tension that runs through every touchpoint.<\/p>\n

Havas London\u2019s refreshed design system for Asahi Super Dry<\/p>\n

Together, they give the identity both discipline and energy \u2013 a system that feels alive rather than locked down.<\/p>\n

These codes helped define how the brand behaves, ensuring it could flex across formats without repeating itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe enemy in such projects is the \u2018matching luggage\u2019 mentality,\u201d says Fruzza. \u201cIt\u2019s toxic and reductive \u2013 the idea that your TV spot should look exactly like your print or social work. Consistency shouldn\u2019t mean uniformity; it\u2019s about creating a shared feel, not identical executions.\u201d<\/p>\n

When refreshing the design system, the team chose to preserve two sacred elements \u2013 the logo and the silver \u2013 both carrying deep brand equity.<\/p>\n

Every new addition was designed to work with these anchors. Red was introduced to complement the silver \u2013 subtle rim lighting in photography, or sleek accents appearing on ice buckets and beer pumps.<\/p>\n

The red hue is used across touchpoints<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the team used the logo as the foundation for the Apex graphic framework, the visual glue that binds the system together. Its sharp, peak-like \u2018A\u2019 form became the starting point for a geometric pattern that extends across formats, from campaign visuals to physical brand experiences.<\/p>\n

Each of these elements comes together to form a scalable structure that primes the brand for growth. Ultimately though, as Fruzza says, the success of such a system lies in its ability to not just reach new audiences, but move them.<\/p>\n

The Apex pattern in action<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know that the work is clear and enticing enough that more people buy the beer,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I also want to know that the tone has landed \u2013 that people feel Asahi is an exciting, premium brand. Design sits somewhere between the functional and the emotional, and the impact should show on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, Asahi Super Dry proves for Fruzza that design can no longer play a supporting role in advertising \u2013 it deserves equal footing.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesign has always been the poor cousin of creative in advertising,\u201d he says. \u201cBut this project has changed that for me. I can now confidently talk to the industry about why design needs to be valued more \u2013 and this gives me a cast-iron example of that. It\u2019s not words anymore. Here\u2019s the proof.\u201d<\/p>\n

Havas London\u2019s refreshed design system for Asahi Super Dry
\nHavas London\u2019s refreshed design system for Asahi Super Dry
\nHavas London\u2019s refreshed design system for Asahi Super Dry<\/p>\n

\nWhat to read next: <\/strong>What is your earliest design memory?<\/a> | Neighbourhood app Nextdoor relaunches with new brand and product design<\/a> | Super Okay rebrands cannabis company THC Design<\/a> | Planning Unit\u2019s HYDA Helmets rebrand rides surfing\u2019s changing tides<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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