Lone River: The Western Original

YEAR 2023

CLIENT Diageo

AGENCY Design Bridge and Partners

MY ROLE Modeling, LookDev, Animation, Rendering

DURATION 1 Week+

TOOLS Cinema 4D, After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop

CREATIVE DIRECTION Christian Bird

2D MOTION Abbi Chard

3D & ANIMATION Gan Lin

CLIENT TEAM Bridget Ashley, Shang Wu

Reclaiming the Narrative After Diageo acquired Lone River——the pioneer of the “Ranch Water” category——the brand faced a crowded market of competitors and the challenge of brand misattribution. To reestablish its lead, the brand worked with Design Bridge and Partners to introduce an enlarged organic logo created from a hand-forged cattle brand. By enhancing the logo while downsizing the product name, “Ranch Water,” it ensures instant brand recognition across the entire portfolio.

I had two roles on the project. First, creation and retouching of 3D cans for Front-of-Package, allowing the visuals to communicate the brand’s quality and presence at a glance on national shelves. Second, which is the main focus of this case study, I partnered with a Senior Motion Designer to produce 3D product sequences for the 35-second sizzle reel designed for Diageo’s executive leadership. The film served as the primary visual reveal of the new labels, along with West Texas-inspired lifestyle footage.

Follow It West In contrast with the clean summer party look of traditional seltzers, the film moved through high-contrast shots of blue denim, worked leather, and horse hooves to the glow of burning embers and sun-drenched orange dirt roads. The brief challenged me to create a cinematic hero shot for the final reveal that looked like a seamless frame from the film, rather than a standalone product render. To make the aluminum cans feel grounded in the dusty, dry atmosphere of West Texas rather than a clean studio, I searched through hundreds of environmental textures to find a specific HDRI that featured a late-afternoon sun surrounded by a hazy blue desert sky that still carries the day’s heat.

Chasing the Sun With a one-week production timeline, I prioritized cinematic lighting quality to elevate the new packaging, then developed a bold, sun-faded color grade saturated with arid heat to match the raw, adventurous western spirit.

• High-Fidelity Product Reveal: I delivered the first two product shots featuring slow, steady, and intentional camera and light movements. This allowed stakeholders to clearly see the new label details, revamped patterns, and the strengthened logo presence.
• Golden Hour: The final hero shot involved both the Ranch Water and Ranch Rita cans balanced on a ranch fence, captured with a telephoto revolve. I positioned the low-angled sun behind the camera to soak the face of the cans in the rich, golden glow of a Western sunset—capturing that special moment before the end of a long day.

A Category Leader Reclaimed The sizzle reel clearly articulated the new modern western identity and the updated designs for the Diageo boardroom. Since the relaunch, Lone River has maintained its dominance, commanding a 50% market share of the Ranch Water category and remaining the #1 brand of its kind in the United States.