Behind the Brand: Jake Goodman of WeldWerks Brewing Co.
WeldWerks Brewing Co. is one of the most highly regarded breweries in the country. Their acclaim and accolades speak to the brewery’s dedication to their craft, their people and the community that surrounds them making them a highly likable brand that is backed by top notch beer. Much of that likability comes from Jake Goodman, Director of Marketing at WeldWerks. He’s likable in a Paul Rudd kind of way, which makes sense because some say he’s a ringer for Ant Man or Alan Ruck (that’s Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). We sat down with Jake to talk about how he almost became a music pastor at a large church, mentors and resources that helped shape who he is professionally and who he’d call to bail him out of jail.
Indie Creative: Walk us through your journey prior and leading up to WeldWerks.
Jake: Holy Christmas, how long do you have? Probably the best way to explain that sentiment would be to say that at this time 20 years ago, I was certain I was going to be a music pastor at a large Pentecostal church and forever be involved with starting churches-for-20-somethings.
Believe it or not, I'm not doing that anymore.
As I was separating from that whole melange, I was also working at a local TGI Friday's to make some money during college. Turns out I loved hospitality work...until I hated being at a TGI Friday's. At that point, I moved to a "big boy job" in marketing and was eventually the production director for a promotional products company out of Chicago that counted McDonald's and the city's largest marketing firms as it's main clients. I learned how to be a professional and efficient at that gig, and also how to deal with a narcissistic, bi-polar boss (a great combo, believe you me).
After 5 years of wanting to punch myself in the crotch on a daily basis at that job, my wife and I sold everything we had and traveled the country for 6 months to find our "perfect" place, which ended up being Fort Collins. I had zero direction so I thought I'd jump back into the hospitality industry, which eventually led to meeting our co-founder/CEO Colin Jones, who was one of the first bar regulars at a spot I opened and helped run in FoCo, called The Kitchen. A quick friendship turned into a night of cocktails + conversation turned into a lunch meeting + an offer to join the brewery as their first sales person (outside of Colin).
My first day was during the week Juicy Bits was released for the first time, and the rest, quite literally, is history!
Indie Creative: From logo design to brand identity, developing a brand is a BEAST. How did WeldWerks tackle this initially and how has the brand evolved over the years?
Jake: The WeldWerks brand evolution has been an interesting one, though not dissimilar from other small, independent start-ups in that there tend to be a few distinct phases. Early on you bootstrap everything as much as you possibly can. After a couple years and a modicum of success you can allocate additional resources, which resulted in our late-2017 brand refresh. But from then until late 2019, most of our branding and marketing efforts were done by committee, meaning the look and the messaging never really coalesced into something with consistency or firm direction.
Since then we've worked really hard to create a more stable vision of the brand and it's various attributes. For our labels we had always relied on a slow-burning evolution where we would stumble on elements that felt right, then incorporate more permanently over time, but there was never a sense of "Let's go THIS-a-way."
After some chat with our intrepid designer, Rachel Nedrud of Freeline Creative, we realized that we wanted to feature a larger canvas and more engaging imagery. Rachel recently utilized some pattern-based illustrations for a few different labels, and we felt we were onto something. To help create a more dynamic on-shelf presence, we "opened up" the label template a bit more to allow for a greater proportion of the design to be visible at all times while moving towards more kinetic, eye-catching pattern-work for the enlarged backgrounds. So far we are massively in love with the new directions and excited to see where it goes.
Indie Creative: What tools, resources or mentors have helped shape who you are professionally?
Jake: At the end of the day, no one ever really produces brilliant ideas or approaches out of thin air, rather they synthesize available knowledge into a hypothetical framework that, if lucky, happens to provide new access to an old problem. Put another way, you reap what you sow (ha, that Biblical training rearing its ugly head!!). To me, that means that your best bet is to absorb information from pretty much every source and tradition possible. This allows for a larger matrix of potential connections that otherwise might have never been made. Put another way: Wanna build a better mousetrap? Read Bertrand Russell and listen to some jazz.
That said, some of the people and things who have helped shape my current incarnation, in no particular order: my wife + family, Seth Godin, Sam Harris, Ishmael, Radiohead, Siddhartha, Ferris Bueller, Local Natives, P.T. Anderson, Colin Jones/Neil Fisher/Kristin Popcheff, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Wall-E, Matt Taibbi, bourbon, the 80/20 principle, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, cannabis + psychedelics, Henri Nouwen, a well-made meal, Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, The Beatles, The Freedom Manifesto, Jim Collins, Chuck Palahniuk, and Hunter S. Thompson.
Indie Creative: What do you love most about the beer industry?
Jake: Congeniality. Camaraderie. Collaboration. The independence is awesome but, really, it's the people that make it such a dynamic and attractive space in which to do business.
Indie Creative: What is your biggest learning lesson of 2020?
Jake: Adversity is the biggest catalyst of growth.
Indie Creative: Okay let’s switch it up with some rapid fire questions. Don’t think just respond as quickly as you can.
Who would you call to bail you out of jail?
Jake: Colin Jones, co-founder and CEO of WeldWerks.
Who would help you win a dance competition?
Jake: Is alcohol an acceptable answer?
Who would crush game at helping you plan a children’s tea party?
Jake: SKIP FUCKING SCHWARTZ, our innovation and wood cellar lead and face of our Cereal Keller label.
Who gives the best hugs?
Jake: JORDAN FUCKING WHEELER, our senior packaging operator. They are firm, warm and intentional.
Who leaves the best voicemails?
Jake: Me. Sorry. Self-aggrandizing but anyone else would say the same.
Indie Creative: Finally, you’ve said your spirit animal is a hummingbird. Pourquoi?
Jake: That comparison was curated by my lovely wife because, at end of day, I'm just fucking enthralled by most everything, and so I flit from interest to interest in a way that emulates a crazy-ass bird.
The Behind the Brand series pays homage to the creative minds that make up our collective of inspiring brands and collaborators. These hustlers, game changers and innovators are often behind the scenes bring their brands to life—one tweet, one story, one photograph at a time.