# Guinness new logo (2016)

> Guinness launched a new logo in Apr 2016, designed by Design Bridge. Apr 2016: Guinness harp redrawn by Design Bridge with Gerry Barney (more detailed strings, EST 1759 in the pillar, new hand-drawn wordmark).

## Key facts

- Brand: Guinness
- Launched: Apr 2016
- Studio: Design Bridge
- What changed: Apr 2016: Guinness harp redrawn by Design Bridge with Gerry Barney (more detailed strings, EST 1759 in the pillar, new hand-drawn wordmark).
- Why: Guinness redesigned its identity to reassert its craftsmanship and appeal to a younger, growing audience.
- Industry: Food & drink
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/guinness-2016/before.png (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/guinness-2016/after.svg (after)

## The rebrand, explained

The harp has been on Guinness for about 150 of the brand's 250 years, based on the Brian Boru harp, a national symbol of Ireland. By 2016 Diageo had a problem: a new generation of craft beers was claiming the language of skill and authenticity that Guinness had owned for centuries. The redesign aimed to reassert that craftsmanship and appeal to a younger, growing audience.

Design Bridge built the new harp the hard way. The team consulted London harp-makers Niebisch & Tree and built physical models from sketches to understand details such as the curve of the harmonic neck and how shadows fall across the instrument. Illustrator Gerry Barney, who drew a version of the harp in 1968 and the British Rail double arrow in 1965, then drew from the models.

The result is more detailed and more three-dimensional than the harp it replaced, with more defined strings and EST 1759 in the pillar. A new hand-drawn wordmark sits alongside it. Letterpress studio New North Press helped dramatise the form further: the harp was split into layers and built up with overlaid colours and textures, embossing, foil blocking and metallic inks.

Design Bridge's chief creative officer told Design Week the aim was to know the harp as intimately as possible and turn that into an icon rich with depth that still suited a modern global beer brand. The Drum framed it as Guinness setting itself apart from craft brewers.

Creative Review's interview with the agency's creative director explained why a symbol this old needed touching at all, and how. The redraw was a collaboration with harp makers, a letterpress studio and the illustrator who drew it by hand, a deliberately analogue chain for a mark meant to signal skill and craftsmanship. That is the point of the exercise: in a market crowded with craft beer, Guinness wanted its harp to look made rather than merely rendered.

This is a rebrand that goes against the flattening fashion of its moment, and it is better for it. The extra detail is not decoration; it is the argument. A brewer competing on heritage and skill made its symbol look made, and it took the trouble to make it properly.

In short: A harp redrawn from a real harp, and a rare rebrand that added detail rather than removing it.

## Sources

- https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/18-24-april-2016/how-design-bridge-redesigned-the-guinness-harp/
- https://www.thedrum.com/news/guinness-aims-inject-skill-and-craftsmanship-new-harp-logo
- https://www.designbridge.com/work/guinness

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "Guinness new logo (2016)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/guinness-2016/, last updated 2026-10-20.