Now that you’ve figured out who is going to design your label and made sure to understand all the TTB requirements, you get to actually play around with the artwork.
There are so many different directions to go, so here are the best tips we’ve found from brewery owners like Toth and Corcoran.
In reality, consumers will only see a pretty small portion of the front of your can. You need to maximize that. For example, in the beginning Toth said when they first started putting beer in cans, their labels didn’t have Divine Barrel on them or the words would wrap all the way around the can or just be on the back. “We realized people had to twist the can to read the brand,” says Toth. “Or had to look at a much tinier font to see the style and even tinier font to see what’s in it! Oh, and by the way, who the hell makes this beer!? Our name wasn’t even on the front.” That wasn’t good enough because they weren’t maximizing Toth’s advice to get brands in hands.
A year in, Divine Barrel decided that they needed to get their brand name on the front of every can. “We finally added Divine Barrel and they sold a lot better,” laughs Toth.
Sometimes less is more. When Divine Barrel started a new lager series, they decided to stick with a very simplistic design—just a white can with the words of the style, i.e. “German Pils.” Toth said that was a very conscious decision. “A cool tidbit is that, at the time, the number-one selling SKU in all Whole Foods was the coconut water carton that just said coconut water,” says Toth. “I thought this was a real branding opportunity.”
But above all, you still need to make sure that people can read what’s on the label.
“Legibility is number one,” says Toth. “If I can’t read what’s on the label, I move on.”
The first words that people read on the label will be important. Let your consumer know what your beer is! If it’s an imperial stout, write that. If it’s an IPA (see notes below), indicate that. The most helpful step here is to build a huge word bank that you can whittle down to the most important names that your designer can use to create the art.
Seems like a lot? Well, the good news is that the beer industry isn’t held to the same standards as many others.
“There are many different ways to make a ‘good label,’” says Tanaka. “But one of the things we find fun about label design in the beer world is that a lot of rules for classic good design are completely broken. If you look at some successful beer labels and try to apply them to someone making soup or granola, it would never pass. But our world is fun and exciting to explore.”
A pop of color is often the first element that attracts attention. Color can be powerful enough to evoke memory, emotion, and even seasons—have you seen a pumpkin beer that doesn’t incorporate some hue of orange or red? We often associate warm reds, oranges, and yellows with the hefeweizens and marzens popular in the fall while bright pastel greens, light blues, and lilac purples go with maibocks and blonde ales of spring. Color is a shortcut for you to prep the consumer for the beer inside.
“I start with the artwork and the artists to come up with something with a great color scheme to pop off the label and catch your eye,” says Corcoran.
Color is a teaser, a way of setting consumer expectations.
When Divine Barrel released its first year-rounder in cans—Universal Language—they set it apart by designing a dark top and white bottom.
“There is contrast on that one so it is eye catching with black and white,” says Toth. “We only have two year-round beers, so it catches your eye in different ways when on the shelf.”
More than that though, this label also incorporates personal elements unique to Divine Barrel’s brand.
Insider Tip: Be conscious of the colors you use and talk to your printer beforehand. “A lot of times in the beer space, a talented graphic designer will eye drop some random color they like, but that just increases your manufacturing costs by twenty-five percent,” says Boyd. “It’s just a good thing to have an understanding of how colors can affect pricing when producing labels.”
Toth says that one of the best ways to set your labels apart is to get personal with your designs, “because it helps push your brand, [and your brand] is a part of your life.”
For instance, on Divine Barrel’s Universal Language label, Toth explains there are music notes spilling out of the gramophone, bringing Divine Barrel up into the music and spewing music out into Divine Barrel. Which, as Toth puts it, “is what we do.”
Getting personal goes back to understanding your brand and finding a way to visually display that on the can.
Do you want a traditional shape and size or something custom? Going the custom route might make your label standout, but it could also increase the printing costs.
For example, the popular Brooklyn-based brewery Other Half specifically uses labels designed for 12oz cans on 16oz cans. The smaller wrap gives their beers an iconic look that stays consistent across all of their beers.
Generally, label shapes fall into three categories:
Partial wraps come with two separate labels, one for the front and another for the back. This is a common label type with bottles specifically, typically sized at 3.5” by 4”. The most important consideration here is to make sure that your printer can accommodate front and back labels on the same roll.
Full wraps mean your label goes around the whole bottle. With these types of labels, you’ll have more room to design and add important details. But remember—with your bottle or can sitting on a crowded shelf, most likely the consumer will only see the first third of your label. You can have the most intricate design in the world that wraps around your whole can, but unless the front causes someone to pick it up, they’ll never see all that beauty on the back. Corcoran says that he had to learn this lesson the hard way. He actually recommends printing out your proof and wrapping it around your can because the 2D image on a computer screen can look very different in real-life 3D.
Similarly, Andrew Boyd, president of Blue Label Packaging, an all-digital packaging printer based in Lancaster, OH, always tells his clients to print out mockups first.
“I’m a big fan of testing things out before you commit,” he says. “There is no reason to gamble with something this huge. Always get a mock-up that’s color correct. Check the colors out in real life because things look very different on the screen than in the physical world.”
Finally, custom shapes can be a really fun, easy way to make your beer label stand out. Just make sure that it will actually fit on your bottle and can. One easy step here is to take a regular piece of paper and cut out the mock shape you’re going for. Wrap it around your bottle or can to get an idea of the space you have to work with while also checking for general fit. You can measure this final shape to share with your printer.
Whatever you decide, make a decision based on your overall brand identity. If you’re an edgy, contemporary brewery focusing solely on spontaneous fermentation, maybe you’ll want to go the route of a custom shape. But if you’re a traditional lagerhaus, a standard full wrap will probably serve just fine. Figure out your budget, stick to your brand, and go from there.
For reference, here’s a handy chart from Blue Label Packaging that lays out the most common label sizes.
Much like color communicates feelings and emotions, typography can indicate your brand style and personality. A classic serif font (one that contains little feet at the end of letters) says your brewery is more traditional, while a sans-serif typeface comes across as more modern. Similarly, different creative fonts evoke other things.
Insider tip: Remember that consumers and the TTB need to be able to read the words on your label!
Nowadays, craft beer labels have become a form of art. Labels on beer cans cover the gamut from cartoon-style illustrations and comic panels to handcrafted masterpieces and work commissioned from local artists. At Channel Marker, Corcoran works with an artist in a studio next to the brewery to design custom oil paintings that are then turned into digital impressions and placed on their can labels. It’s a laborious process that often takes six to eight weeks, but the incredible art reflected on their unique can labels is paramount to the brand’s identity. Channel Marker also employs one of their front-of-house servers who is also a graphic designer.
“The number one thing for me is the artwork,” says Corcoran, whose labels almost always play into a nautical theme and feature vibrant colors. “We enjoy telling a story of some kind with our beer labels. When people come to buy cans, they always ask about the labels. It’s reassuring that people are noticing we’re putting in the time to make something cool and special, and it makes me want to keep putting in the time and effort even if it costs more time and money.”
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