Dan Graves Creative Direction

Work Drinkworks (Anheuser-Busch InBev × Keurig)

Drinkworks Visual Concepts

Five concept directions for the pods and tube sleeves of the Drinkworks Home Bar — divergent thinking before convergence, with the shipped product staying close to the chosen direction.

Client
Drinkworks (Anheuser-Busch InBev × Keurig)
Year
circa 2018–2021
Role
Executive consulting·Concept design
Sector
Beverage / appliance
Drinkworks Visual Concepts — hero image

The brief

Drinkworks was a collaboration between Anheuser-Busch InBev and Keurig: a push-button at-home cocktail machine with single-serve pods and tube sleeves. Roughly 2018–2021. The hardware and the logo were already in place. What was missing was packaging that could carry the story across pods, tubes, in-store, and digital — and on a very tight timeline.

The shape of the contribution here is different from a Viva or an Our Cellar. This was concept and direction — bring the idea, hand off the finishing.

The Drinkworks Home Bar machine on a kitchen counter with two pod tubes (Old Fashioned, Mojito) and two finished cocktails. The product context the packaging had to live inside.
Hero The Drinkworks Home Bar machine on a kitchen counter with two pod tubes (Old Fashioned, Mojito) and two finished cocktails. The product context the packaging had to live inside.

The work

Sole concept designer. Five directions for the pods and the tube sleeves, ranging deliberately wide so the client could see the full space rather than three flavors of the same idea.

The five directions:

  1. Photography — the platonic ideal of each cocktail, presented straight. The most direct, consumer-facing route.
  2. Bold color + typographic identity — flavor expressed by hue and word, no imagery.
  3. Ingredient photography — close-ups of the lemon peel, the mint, the muddled cherry. Recipe-as-identity.
  4. Geometric / dot system — a more graphic, almost packaging-design-school read.
  5. Modern abstract painting — each cocktail as a small abstract canvas. Different from anything else on the shelf.
The four tube sleeves, each carrying a styled hero shot of the drink — Old Fashioned over orange, Moscow Mule over copper, Mojito over green, Gin + Tonic over lime. The chosen direction.
Direction 1 — photography route The four tube sleeves, each carrying a styled hero shot of the drink — Old Fashioned over orange, Moscow Mule over copper, Mojito over green, Gin + Tonic over lime. The chosen direction.
The same four cocktails as small painterly canvases — moody blue gin, fern-green rum, citrus-lime, fiery orange whiskey. My favorite of the five.
Direction 5 — abstract painting route The same four cocktails as small painterly canvases — moody blue gin, fern-green rum, citrus-lime, fiery orange whiskey. My favorite of the five.
Bold outlined dots scaled by mood, color-coded by spirit. The most graphic of the five.
Direction 2 — geometric / dot system Bold outlined dots scaled by mood, color-coded by spirit. The most graphic of the five.
Lemon, ginger, mint, citrus peel — each cocktail told through its key garnish. Recipe-led.
Direction 3 — ingredient photography Lemon, ginger, mint, citrus peel — each cocktail told through its key garnish. Recipe-led.
Solid color panels, descriptive copy, a small "Garnish me with…" speech bubble at the top.
Direction 4 — bold color + typography Solid color panels, descriptive copy, a small "Garnish me with…" speech bubble at the top.

On the shelf

The client picked the photography route — “the platonic ideal of each cocktail presentation” — and the shipped product stayed close to that direction even after handoff to a finishing designer.

The chosen direction as a finished retail-and-digital ad — three full tube sleeves on a green/black band, "Delivery + cocktails at the push of a button."
Production-stage piece The chosen direction as a finished retail-and-digital ad — three full tube sleeves on a green/black band, "Delivery + cocktails at the push of a button."
Direct-mail / promo execution and a print spec sheet — the chosen direction landing in a one-to-one consumer touchpoint.
Direct-mail / promo execution and a print spec sheet — the chosen direction landing in a one-to-one consumer touchpoint.
A Father's Day promotional ad ("Get a $50 prepaid card") built from the same system. Proof that the concept extended across formats without losing itself.
A Father's Day promotional ad ("Get a $50 prepaid card") built from the same system. Proof that the concept extended across formats without losing itself.

What I’m proudest of

Several things, layered.

Breadth of the concepting. Five directions, real ground covered, positive feedback across the spread. Speed. Done on a very short timeline. Fidelity to concept. The shipped product stayed close to a major presented direction, even through the handoff to the finishing designer.

And one honest reflection: the client picked the most direct, most commercially safe of the five — not my personal favorite. The abstract-painting route would have stood out harder on the shelf, but the photography route was the right call given what each side actually valued. A creative director’s job is to present real options, not to push their favorite into the room.