Waterloo Brand Guidelines: Bold Austin Sparkling Water & Its Look

Waterloo is bold, true-to-fruit sparkling water.

Waterloo is a lesson in flavour as the differentiator. Founded in 2017 in Austin, Texas, and incubated by CAVU Venture Partners (whose team includes serial Austin beverage entrepreneur Clayton Christopher), it is zero-calorie, zero-sugar, no-sweetener, no-sodium sparkling water known for bold, accurate, true-to-fruit taste — its flagship Black Cherry was engineered around premium Luxardo cherries across dozens of iterations.

Its name is a piece of local pride: “Waterloo” was the original 1830s name of the frontier settlement that was renamed Austin in 1839 — a nod to the brand’s hometown, not the Napoleonic battle. Positioned against LaCroix, Bubly and Spindrift, Waterloo competes on the intensity and authenticity of its flavour, with clean, flavour-keyed cans and an Austin sensibility.

(Honest notes: the name refers to old Austin, not Napoleon or Belgium; the water is naturally flavoured with zero sugar, calories, sweeteners or sodium; and on ownership, Waterloo was not acquired by Keurig Dr Pepper — a common mix-up — but by a Flexis Capital-led investor group (with Eurazeo Brands, Moore Strategic Ventures and JW Levin) in August 2020, when CAVU sold its stake. No official brand hex is published.)

Waterloo lives in a bold-flavour palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Waterloo’s identity is bold, fresh and flavour-forward — a deep black cherry, a watermelon pink, a grape violet, a lemon-lime zest, and a sparkling white. The palette reads like its cans: confident, saturated colours keyed to real, bold flavours, led by the signature Black Cherry. It signals intensity and authenticity rather than timid, pale seltzer. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is a bold-flavour palette signals true-to-fruit sparkling water. Waterloo’s world reads as confident and fresh. For designers, it is a reminder that deep, saturated flavour colours convey intensity and authenticity, matching a brand that competes on bold taste. The takeaways: use confident, saturated hues keyed to each flavour; let a signature flavour (Black Cherry) anchor the palette; and treat any single hex as unofficial — using the deep cherry or ink for small text so the brights stay in the palette.

The wordmark spirit is a modern sans — bold and clean.

Waterloo’s identity carries a bold, clean, confident spirit — a “WATERLOO” wordmark whose modern forms match a bold, flavour-forward sparkling water. A modern sans captures the mood: it is clean and assured, the register of a contemporary Austin beverage rather than a legacy soda. Set against a bold-flavour palette, the modern sans feels confident and fresh — exactly the true-to-fruit, zero-sugar personality Waterloo carries. It is assured rather than timid, mirroring an intense, authentic flavour. (Waterloo’s real wordmark is a trademark we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not something we assert.) Because the specific mark is not ours to use, the honest description is “a modern sans spirit,” not the Waterloo logo. The type behaves like the brand: bold, clean and confident.

Waterloo stands for intense, authentic sparkling water.

Waterloo is a lesson in winning a bland category on taste. Sparkling water is crowded with subtle, sometimes timid flavours; Waterloo chose to be the bold, accurate one, engineering flavours like its Luxardo-cherry Black Cherry to taste unmistakably like the real thing. Paired with a proud Austin identity and clean, confident cans, that flavour-first stance gave it a clear place against LaCroix and Bubly. The differentiator is the drink itself: bold, true-to-fruit taste, made the hero of the brand.

For designers and brand-builders, Waterloo offers a clear takeaway: a real product advantage deserves to lead the brand. The lessons: compete where rivals are weak (bold, accurate flavour); let a signature product (Black Cherry) anchor the identity; and give the brand a genuine sense of place (Austin). It is also a reminder to stay accurate: the name is old Austin, the water is zero-sugar and naturally flavoured, and its majority owner is a Flexis Capital-led group — not Keurig Dr Pepper — with the palette here an unofficial interpretation. Waterloo led with flavour — proof that a real product advantage can be the difference.

Keep Waterloo’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.