Craft beer brewers have to work twice as much as big beer companies to market their products and create product awareness. Unfortunately, small craft brewers do not have the luxury of allowing consumers to taste their beer to see how great it is. While free samples and word of mouth are effective methods of promotion, label’s branding still accounts for most of a brewer’s first impression.
Knowing a brand personality is a good start, but a beer producer still has to translate this personality into a visual brand identity. That is by creating craft beer labels. In order to communicate your beer personality well, you need to use the element of design that does that best. That is use of color. With just a momentary glance, color sparks a unique emotional connotation to communicate brand complexities. Find out how you can create fun and functional craft labels.
Label Size And Shape
Label shape is a big consideration specific to a brewer. You need to decide whether you want something custom, or a traditional shape and size. Custom label shapes, also known as die cut, cost more than traditional label shapes, but they make your product stand out. Decide whether you want a front and back label for your bottle or a single label that wraps around the body. Also see if you need to include a separate label for the neck. As you decide how to display your labels, think which label material you will use. You can choose to use a material with a transparent background or a simple standard paper.
The decision you make will be determined by how much you are willing to spend. Also, the size of your beer bottles will determine the shape and size of your labels. Have all these figured out before you start designing your labels to ensure everything goes together.
Style And Imagery
To make your products stand out, don’t just settle for traditional label styles. Today, there is a growing market for craft beer and that means as a brewer you need to create labels that will attract consumers’ attention. Be creative with your label designs and use everything from hand drawn masterpieces to cartoon-like illustration to extreme minimalism to photographs. The label style you choose should be dictated by your target audience. For example, if you are targeting customers who are younger, you might want a label that is a bit trippy or outlandish. For classier consumers, you need to go with a minimalist label.
Typography
Most brewers are not aware that the type of font they choose speaks a lot about their brand personality. With various fonts to choose from, ensure that you pick one that is readable. The intention of having labels on your product is so that consumers can be able to read the name of your product so that they can remember it. Also, you provide information about your product on the labels to help consumers make an informed choice.
High Quality Prints
You may have designed a perfect beer label, but if the final print is of poor quality that will affect how consumers perceive your product. You need to work with an established label printer who uses the latest printing technology. More and more business people are opting for digital label printing because it produces high quality colored prints. Digital printing also brings out high resolution labels that are clear and crisp.
