Pearlfisher modernised Eichhof's 1960s squirrel for the Swiss beer's global push

Eichhof has brewed beer in Lucerne for over 185 years and is legendary in Central Switzerland, but its aesthetic was inconsistent with little distinction across the portfolio and on shelf.

A more modern squirrel and matching wordmark, a repetitive squirrel pattern across cans, the brand yellow retained, and Lucerne artist Amadeus Waltenspühl's black-and-white illustrations with hits of colour; redesigned labels carry the founder's details and founding date.

One consistent, modern identity across all 13 varieties, built to carry a fiercely local Lucerne beer to a global market while keeping its heritage signals on every label.

Creative Review reported on March 24, 2021 that Eichhof — the Swiss beer brand now owned by Heineken, brewing in Lucerne for over 185 years with strong links to its home region — had a new visual identity created by Pearlfisher. Heineken tasked the agency with evolving the brand and its 13 varieties for a global market.

Pearlfisher head of strategy Kristoffer Fink Parup said Eichhof was legendary in Central Switzerland but its current aesthetic was inconsistent, with little distinction across the portfolio and on shelf. Centred on the new brand positioning Neue Traditionen, the most noticeable change is a modern version of the distinctive Eichhof squirrel, which dates back to the 1960s, with the wordmark recreated to match its styling and a distinctively repetitive squirrel pattern opened across the can to potential new audiences.

The company's yellow brand colour was retained, and Pearlfisher worked with Lucerne-based artist Amadeus Waltenspühl to redesign the packaging across the range: black-and-white illustrations accompanied by hits of colour, with labels nodding to heritage through details of the beer's founder and the date it was originally founded.

The rebrand solves a portfolio problem — 13 varieties with little shelf distinction — with one repeatable visual device.

It keeps the brand's strongest local asset, the squirrel and the yellow, while modernising both for audiences outside Central Switzerland.

Heritage is preserved in the details: the founder and founding date move onto the redesigned labels as proof of the 185-year story.

Global expansion needs one distinctive asset to organise around: a single 1960s squirrel, redrawn and repeated, unified 13 varieties that previously looked like different brands.

As of the March 2021 reveal, the Neue Traditionen identity was rolling out across Eichhof's 13 varieties, carrying the Lucerne brewery's community, locality and brewing tradition to a wider world, per Pearlfisher.