Fast Twitch - An Energy Drink from Gatorade

Fast Twitch was the first ever caffeinated energy drink from Gatorade. Designed for athletes with a resealable package, NSF safe-for-sport certification, and Gatorade Sports Science Institute behind them, Fast Twitch was the first brand of it’s kind in the energy drink beverage category.

Brief:

Create a Visual Identity System that can live in the energy drink space wile also being sport forward. It was important to think about Forever Athletes, owning fast starts, and to capture the attention of not only consumers at shelf but for football fans to find this on the sidelines at NFL games.

What I Did:

As the Brand Design Manager of this project I art directed agency teams to create all aspects of the Fast Twitch brand. This included our logo mark, product packaging, retail point of sale, ad campaign, as well as directing all photography for our product shoots, tv commercials and social content.

The VIS:

The Fast Twitch brand was a new offering for the energy drink space. It represented the tension of lacing up your cleats before you busted your teeth playing hockey, or clapping your hands in the chalk before you lifted your own weight above your head. This beverage gave it’s drinkers the energy to explode into activity. It needed a visual identity to contain this.

The focus in developing the Visual Identity System of Fast Twitch was that it was something new. This was not a heritage sport story, and this certainly aint your mamma’s energy drink. This brand had to feel cool, gutsy, and speak to those who came to play. The logo has to feel modern, the color had to vibrate, and the brand patterns had to support motion and activity.

That’s how color, type, logo, and everything in between was sourced.

The Packaging:

Fast Twitch is an energy drink, when designing the packaging the biggest thing to solve for was to create something that felt native to the energy category, but not confuse it with sport drinks. I also had to find a solution where the packaging could stand out against competition. Neon green felt like the spirit of the brand, and would stand out in a beverage isle. The logo does the rest of the work to compete in the energy catagory.

Brand Photography:

Fast Twitch focused on fast starts. This caught the attention of the NFL and this brand became an official partner with the organization in its first year. This gave the brand a unique opportunity to have some clout behind its energy. The focus for any brand shoot is to capture shots about Sipping the product, Setting for activity, then exploding with energy into action. The creative focuses on a ‘demo person’ vibe, similar to that of Gatorade. To show action the team captured in camera light trails to show motion wile static. It was also important that attitude was palpable in the photography.

Voice & Tone:

It was important to the brand team that Fast Twitch could translate across all platforms, digital and traditional. We spent a lot of time crafting a tone that felt competitive, energetic, and easy to enter into. The demographic of Fast Twitch is 18+ with a focus on Gen Z, Zillennials, and Millennials. Our brand tone had to translate natively to internet and sport culture.

Fast Twitch’s voice is edgy, loud, flashy, explosive, aspirational, and entertaining.
Fast Twitch’s tone is that it embraces the spotlight, owns it’s wins, and is not afraid of smack talk. As a fearless competitor Fast Twitch knows it serves the elite and makes them untouchable.

Project Done In Collaboration with:

I personally executed work around color targeting, font licensing, Chevron pattern usage, and writing the official brand book for internal and external partners.

Fast Twitch Marketing Team
Soulsite Agency : Packaging design
Big Space Ship Agency: Honing rules and brand guides through design
Matt Brush: Photography

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