The harp, which serves as the Guinness emblem, is based on a famous 14th century Irish harp. The harp device has been synonymous with Guinness since 1862. It was registered as a Guinness company trademark in 1876. however, the Guinness har faces right instead of left, and so can be distinguished from the Irish coat of arms.

UK based agency JKR were asked to create a more refined, distinctive and impactful design system to build a more unified feel for the brand globally and also make the brand more relevant to a new generation.

JKR started with the harp – it’s the one device that consumers globally recall in research and can draw from memory. JKR crafted it adding a sense of movement to the strings and stripped the core identity back, and ensured it always reversed out of black.