A weighty proposition

Reuben Heaton was founded in 1857 as a manufacturer of fishing reels, and quickly expanded to cover many other items of angling equipment. The company sold fishing reels and tackle worldwide around the turn of the century, and was responsible for many of the early innovations that have shaped modern-day angling equipment. The first scales appeared in the company catalogue in the 1870s, and are now the firm’s main manufacturing focus, with an extensive range covering both commercial and sporting markets, exported all around the world.

BowlesAssociates was tasked with rebranding Reuben Heaton, creating a new company logo, refining colour schemes and straplines and bringing a more consistent look to the company’s range of hanging packaging. The accuracy and durability of Reuben Heaton scales is widely recognised by serious anglers, and they have been long adopted as the competition scale of choice for many big events. To mirror this status, we developed a series of graphical illustrations, based on the face of each product, for the front side of each packaging item - to be viewed as close to actual size as possible. We also moved away from pure studio product shots and introduced fresh photography of products ‘on the riverbank’ (shot by the Portrait Collective).

Further refinement has followed with the creation of a new brand ‘sportscale by Reuben Heaton’ offering scales and accessories to the recreational angler, while the firm’s top-end British-made scales and weighing instruments, made using traditional methods, retains the Reuben Heaton logo as its market-leading brand, instantly recognisable to all competition anglers.

In 2010 Reuben Heaton acquired an established lures manufacturer, and has continued production from its Midlands factory - adding more traditional British-made angling products to its offering. We are currently working to create suitable designs for packaging for the diverse range of fishing lures, which will carry the RH Range tag.

Other work has included designing exhibition stands and components for trade shows, instruction manuals for the latest range of electronic scales, and a mini-brochure that is included in packaging and features all the company products. We have also produced a catalogue that was distributed in Tackle & Guns magazine, and it is Reuben Heaton managing director Andrew Race's intention that this will form the basis of a new annual catalogue.

The most exciting venture on the horizon for Reuben Heaton is the imminent release of a brand new range of high-quality, British-built fishing reels. These much anticipated reels will be the first manufactured under the Reuben Heaton name for 50 years - and are currently in the final throws of testing on the rivers of Scotland...