Down the Rabbit Hole Packaging Design
Black Rabbit Mead Co. is a Reno meadery that came to us before the company was officially founded — looking for a logo, expecting a sketch, leaving with the entire brand world that mead deserves and that most consumers have never seen. The category is unfamiliar territory for almost every buyer. The packaging had to do the introducing.
Live since 2021
A pre-launch meadery in a category most buyers have never heard of.
Will Truce came to Commence with a fermenter, a recipe book, and an unfounded company. He thought he wanted a logo. What he had was a much bigger problem: he was about to launch a meadery in a market where most adult buyers can’t define what mead is. The product was real — wild Nevada honey, traditional fermentation, a level of patience that put it closer to a vintage wine than to a craft beer. None of that lived in his head as a brand yet.
The challenge was conceptual before it was visual. Mead has to introduce itself in two seconds on a tasting-room shelf or a bottle-shop endcap. Buyers won’t pick up a $24 bottle of an unfamiliar fermented honey beverage unless the label tells them, instantly, that this is special, that it’s drinkable, and that they’re going to want to try it. The label is the marketing. The label is the product’s introduction. The label is the persuasion.
The brief opened up: not a logo, but a full brand world. A name and a logomark that could carry the Lewis-Carroll-meets-Northern-Nevada strangeness Will wanted. A custom typography system. A color palette that didn’t look like every other “rustic craft beverage” label in the cooler. Stamp marks for taproom merch and casework. And a bottle label system that worked across a growing roster of meads — flagships, seasonals, single-batch experiments — without losing the through-line. Down the rabbit hole, with a system to follow it.
A brand world, not a logo. Build the whole rabbit hole.
Educated the founder on what branding actually is.
The first deliverable wasn't a sketch — it was a conversation. Walked Will through what a brand system carries (positioning, voice, visual identity, system rules, application discipline) and why a logo without the rest is just an expensive image file. By week two, the brief had grown from "we need a logo" to "we need the brand world that turns a mead bottle into an experience."
Concept exploration that earned the founder’s trust.
Multiple concept directions before locking — moody-Victorian, surreal-Carrollian, vintage-apothecary, neo-folkloric. Will is a self-described picky founder, and the engagement leaned into that with patience. Four full directions explored before the chosen one (Carrollian-folkloric) emerged. The breadth of exploration is what earned the long-term collaborator relationship.
A logomark that does Lewis Carroll without the cliché.
The Black Rabbit logomark — a stylized rabbit silhouette that nods to Carroll without literalizing him, paired with custom hand-lettered "Black Rabbit Mead Co." wordmark. The mark works at every scale: bottle neck-band, glass etching, tap handle, taproom signage, social avatar. Distinctive enough at distance that a buyer can spot it across a crowded bottle-shop cooler.
A custom typography + color system that reads “premium beverage.”
Custom display face for product names plus a serif body type that gives the labels their literary feel. Color palette: deep ink-black, warm parchment, hand-mixed amber — readable at low taproom lighting and aging gracefully under bottle-shop fluorescents. Categorically unlike the saturated craft-beer palette next to it on the shelf.
A label system that scales across the line.
Modular bottle label architecture: shared masthead anatomy, per-product custom illustration zones, mead-style classification badge (Traditional · Melomel · Cyser · Session), batch numbering, and tasting notes. Flagships, seasonal releases, and single-batch experiments all read as one family while each label tells its own micro-story. Designed for the hand-applied label runs of a startup meadery, not a mass production line.
Stamps, casework, and taproom assets that carry the world.
Beyond the bottle: a library of stamp marks (used on shipping cases, taproom merch, growler fills, tasting-room receipts), tap handle artwork, glassware etching specs, and the taproom interior signage system. The brand world existed everywhere a customer might encounter Black Rabbit — not just on the bottle.
It feels like they are a part of our company. The way they were able to take our ideas and come up with a variety of different concepts was phenomenal. Collaborating with them has been a rare and incredible experience.
Will Truce · Founder, Black Rabbit Mead Co.
Numbers that matter for a startup meadery.
Identity, packaging, and taproom — in production.
Commence Studio produces tremendous work, and it feels like they are a part of our company. The way they were able to take our ideas and come up with a variety of different concepts was phenomenal. They are so patient and enthusiastic to explore what I want to explore, despite my pickiness. Collaborating with them has been a rare and incredible experience.
Like what you see? Let's talk about your commerce stack.
A 14-day strategic diagnostic — we audit your current stack, identify the friction worth fixing first, and ship a phased plan with sized investments. Fully credited toward an engagement if we move forward together.
What you walk away with
- ✓A measured map of every friction point in your current commerce flow
- ✓Three phased options — minimum, considered, comprehensive
- ✓Sized investments and timelines, no aspirational ranges
- ✓A clear "don't hire us if…" section. We mean it.
