ICB Indian Craft Brewery – India by design.
India by design. In a city teeming with breweries that look to the West, Spread Design and Innovation decided to look back – way back. Spread was awarded with the distinction ‘Red Dot’ in the Red Dot Design Award : Brands & Communication Design in 2025. For our work on ICB (Indian Craft Brewery). Proving that authentic Indian heritage can be a global heavyweight. Spread’s award-winning design for ICB sidesteps imitation by diving deep into India’s own brewing history, which dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization. The entire brand identity is a nod to these roots, featuring a custom typeface derived from ancient Indic seals and unique Beeroglyphs that narrate ancient tales without a single word. The result is a brand that is both primal and futuristic, transforming the brewery into a sanctuary of positive hedonism. This philosophy extends to its operations, where sustainability is key, and brewing byproducts are repurposed. Having already welcomed over 500,000 guests within nine months of its launch, ICB has successfully brought a taste of ancient India to the modern craft beer scene, demonstrating that the most refreshing ideas can be steeped in Indian history. “Indian culture is the richest open source for native ideas to feed the new and innovative. Globally! Contemporary Indian design and business should work towards being a reference point for original / local ideas with global quality. The Global South has the opportunity to revisit roots, renew culture and celebrate the richness of craft cultures and make craft the new luxury. We have looked outwards for too long while the world has leaned into our open source design culture. It’s time to use our imagination to create fresh and unimaginable success stories. And business models that deserve to be scaled as they connect at an emotional, sensitive and visceral level. Thereby position Indian design globally as having semiotic richness and spiritual depth. Even a brewery can be a sacred space to discover your true self, find your tribe. ICB brews community, ferments friendships, crafts happiness.” Sonia ManchandaFounding Partner, Spread Design and InnovationBoard Member, World Design Organisation Global win for Indian Design Spread gets a Red Dot! 🔴 Just announced, a Red Dot Design Award 2025 win in the Brands & Communication category. For Spread’s work on ICB | Indian Craft Brewery. Rediscovering Indic Roots In our fast paced city life, we long for a moment of rest, real feelings, genuine laughter, true understanding. For a warm embrace…we have everything and yet there is an emptiness. Spread went on a quest. Boldly revisiting our Indic roots. Going as far back as possible. Revisiting our culture. To find our Primal, Native, True selves. To revitalize our (drinking) (eating) (gathering) (communing) (celebrating) culture. Going back within. To a space that is authentic. That knows us and that we know. Yet it is bold and new. To create a new paradigm, where we celebrate our own culture. With ICB Indian Craft Brewery the difference is Indic. This project is a break away from the usual patterns of thinking about a brewery, to create a new way of thinking, new heights of experience, rediscovering new ideas from our ancient culture. To turn ordinary everyday experience into extraordinary. Spread Design and Innovation worked closely with the Founders of the Indian Craft Brewery to develop an original Indian brewery concept by going deep into our Indic roots. Craft is the new luxury The Indian Craft Brewery project is the crafting of a new story, a new drinking culture – crafting every design detail of food, drink and place to allow patrons to immerse in a whole new experience. True to us as – craft is the new luxury. This meant, exploring the trading seals of the Indus Valley Civilization, studying the scripts, taking inspiration from the richness and elemental qualities of the seals. In this rich civilisation, there are traces of beer brewing equipment. Every part of our great country has indigenous spirits – entirely original, native and innovative, a great source of rich inspiration. Familiar, yet surprising! Besides discovering unbroken traditions in our culture. Research into the Indus Valley’s brewing and trading traditions led to the discovery that beer was brewed in the Indus Valley in 1300 BC and we discovered Vari – a symbol from Indic seals representing an unbroken pilgrimage tradition where young men carry water for miles. The tradition and the water carrier is unbroken – to this day. Thus we developed the idea of the Vari, the water carrier representing one who quenches our thirst for adventure, also each one of us and ICB patrons. Crafting the very ‘idea of ICB’ as a sacred space that will ease your pressures. Brewing community. Fermenting friendship. Crafting happiness. Red Dot Design Award Founded in 1955, the Red Dot Design Award is one of the largest and most esteemed design competitions worldwide, often referred to as the “Oscars of Design.” The award honors excellence in communication design and serves as an internationally recognized mark of quality, reserved exclusively for outstanding winners. Indian Design with its rich roots, can be a great reference for global quality in thought and execution. Spread’s Red Dot win marks the beginning of an era where Indian design is not just participating in the global conversation, but leading it with imagination, scale, and purpose. Founded in 2015 in Bengaluru, India, Spread Design and Innovation is a creative engine for radical reimagination. A proud member of the World Design Organisation (WDO), Spread translates intent into impact, brands and experiences. Integrating strategy and craft, the physical and digital to explode possibilities. Spread’s Red Dot win marks a rediscovery of Indic roots for the nation and the world. Through the design of the system, brand and cohesive experience of ICB Indian Craft Brewery. Bring back our Beer Bengaluru is a young city, with the highest share of citizens in the age brackets of 19 years to 40 years. And with 71 microbreweries, Bengaluru wears the crown as India’s microbrewery capital. But so
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