Introduction
Origins and History
Jim Stitt and Anhor Brewery
Waresteiner the Art Collection 2014
Hands On Deck!
Comparing and Contrasting labels
Experiment with screen printing
Self made Label
The interview with Johanna Basford
Why cannot beer labels be an art medium? Craft beer and home brewing is growing in our society and the beer culture is filled with a lot of individuals that truly care about what they make.For this year’s Visual Communication Research Project I have chosen to focus on the beer label as an art medium.
Through centuries beer has been an enormously popular beverage throughout the world, if not the most popular drink, before water, tea and coffee. Go back to the Viking Age, where they already began to brew ale and mead. Today beer is more than just an alcohol beverage; it has become a great cultural movement. Beer festivals are now arranged all over the world. October-fest was first arranged in 1810, Munich. Today it is the greatest beer-celebration in the world. It is the cultural events such as festivals, trends and social behaviour that are changing and shaping our visual environment. One has not just the big companies in the industry, more and more people are brewing
Anchor Brewing Company in 1965 is considered a turning point for American beer, due to the revival of craft beer in the U.S., where microbrewing boomed after then-president Jimmy Carter de-regulated the beer market in 1979. Anchor Brewing is America’s first and oldest hand-craft brewery, with roots dating back to the California gold rush.
for them self. The so-called home brewing and micro brewing is almost becoming a trend. What people might not be so aware of is the actual beer label. Beer is almost every time chosen by the familiarity of the label, for instance, Heineken, Carlsberg and Budweiser. Beer label is an art itself, and it should be in its own category in the art industry. This project is about showing that beer labels in fact an art medium. It is an art-platform for designers and creators. By visualizing different labels, good and bad. Producing own hand drawn labels, and the content will contain conversation of design, layout and differences on how to create and develop a label.
British micro brewing, Bill Urquhart at Litchborough Brewery The term originated in the UK in the late 1970s to describe the new generation of small breweries that focused on producing traditional cask ale. The first successful example of this approach was the Litchborough Brewery founded by Bill Urquhart in 1975 in the Northamptonshire village of the same name.
Although the term “microbrewery” was originally used in relation to the size of breweries, it gradually came to reflect an alternative attitude and approach to brewing flexibility, adaptability, experimentation and customer service. The term and trend spread to the U.S. in the 1980s, where it eventually was used as a designation of breweries that produce fewer than 15,000 US beer barrels (1,800,000 L) (475000 US gal) annually.
The UK also has a large number of small commercial breweries making cask ale, the smallest of which are known as microbreweries, and they can be found in small spaces such as domestic garages. In the UK, a lesser divide exists between the microbreweries and the large companies, as breweries of all sizes exist to fill the gap. In Japan, microbrews in the early 1990s, used to be known as “local beer.” An early boom in small regional microbreweries followed Japan’s 1994 revision of tax laws allowing the establishment of smaller breweries producing 60,000 litres (13,000 imp gal; 16,000 US gal) per year
Anchor Brewing is America’s first and oldest craft brewery with roots dating back to the California gold rush. Today, our beers are handmade from an allmalt mash in our traditional copper brewhouse. Our process combines the time-honored art of classical craft brewing with carefully applied, state-of-the-art modern methods. 1849 The rich history of Anchor Brewing can be traced all the way back to the California gold rush, when German brewer Gottlieb Brekle arrived in San Francisco with his family 1896 German brewer
Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel, Jr., bought the old brewery on Pacific (the first of six Anchor locations around the City over the years) and named it Anchor. No one knows why Baruth and Schinkel chose the name Anchor, except, perhaps, for its indirect but powerful allusion to the booming Port of San Francisco.
Label Artist Jim Stitt, a 82 years old artist who is the mind behind the labels to Anchor Brewing Co. He has been the visual artist for nearly every Anchor label since 1970. His project “The hand-drawn trees” is about designing a label for each Christmas Ale, where he draws a new tree for every year.
In an interview with the 82-year-old talented label artist and illustrator, he explains the process behind the hand drawn labels. “It is not just what comes out of the hand, it is a thinking process. A conceptual process.” He works from realistic environments, because everything is hand done when it comes to brewing a beer. It is the historical craftsmanship that brings out the art in their labels. His instinct for the hand made empire. “The concept is that each product was to be truly distinctive, and hand made from scratch. It is a hand made beer so the label should be hand made” - Jim Stitt. They developed a concept in 1975, Story Threes, which contains a series of threes on a beer label. Each year a new three is hand drawn by Jim, and put on a label for their Christmas beer. Like any other art and fine art, it creates a certain feeling when one observes the object, image, design and illustration. The artist creates more feelings through the hand made creation. This relation is relevant to the hand drawn labels. By observing the hand drawn
labels from Jim Stitt and Anchor Brewing one can truly feel the passion and that the product is hand made from the start to the end in the process. On can see the conceptual story behind it and get the fine aesthetic feeling.
Jim Stitt Anchor Brewing, US
The Anchor Brewing label from the series “Threes”. Every year Jim creates a new label for their Christmas ale, and uses a new three for each year. He works outside among naturalistic environment, so that the process gains a whoelness. Everything has to be hand done, and Jim with his raw talent for visualizing the nature one can see through our eyes. It just is a great combination of a visual language. The label itself is a great canvas, this oval shaped from, but turned in a landscaped format. One can almost feel the hand made creation of the beer, by looking at Jims’ work.
Siren Brewery Voyage Desig Siren Brewery, UK
brewery and one of the youngest in Britain. Its core range of beers is each named after a mythological siren, and each label focuses on the bespoke illustration produced for these beautiful but dangerous women, created by Voyage Design. They are all wonderful pieces of monochromatic art in their own right, with their almost-monolinear linework and a strong influence of Art Nouveau.
This is a brewery that claims they care much about the design as they do about the taste of the beer. The are hand drawn, and the illustrations is quitet attractive, but one can commentate if a beer label is the right plateform for the artwork.
Nomada Beer Label Christian Bravo Nomada, Spain
The brewery started in 2011 by three friends from the city St. Miquel de Balenya, north from Barcelona. In the beginning, it was just a pub and a liquor store owned by the father of one of them. Then eventually, they started brewing beer at home, and got lager during the years.
Nómada Royal Porter is a beer brewed in the American tradition: full of hops and not afraid of alcoholic strength. The label is what sets it apart, though: a cat dressed up for a tea-party, looking quiet royal. The story behind this label is unclear, but it’s as playful as all of Nómada’s designs and sure to raise a smile. The body of the label sticker is transparent so that the color of the bottler is the color of the background. It’s a technique that offers an easier, cheaper alternative to printing directly onto the glass.
This is the message of the new WARSTEINER branding strategy. A manifesto with an inspiring attitude toward life: Do what you really want to do.
This is the beautiful art collection from 2014. Where Warsteiner has got six of the most famous international artists to create their new beer labels. It is art on a bottle! The bottle itself is the actual canvas. It really stands out and this is a great example of development by new ideas and concept when it comes to creating and design a beer label. The options for your own self足 actualization are as diverse as life itself. They range from love of gardening to passion for sports to perpetuation of your own inspiration on a blank canvas. This is just what six selected artists have done this year: They have followed their passion and captured it on a highly unusual type of canvas. In the second edition of the WARSTEINER Art Collection, the bottle is again being used as a canvas for six famous international artists ;Kevin Lyons, Fafi, Ron English, D*Face, James Jean and Roid.
Fafi is the creator of the “Fafinettes,” art figures named after her, which are not only immortalized on the graffiti walls of world metropolises but have also appeared on canvas in the great international museums.
Ron English, known for his distinctive painting technique and his parodies of pop culture. He embodies the term POPaganda like no other artist and is also called “The Godfather of Street Art.”
D*Face alias Dean Stockton is considered one of the most productive and contemporary urban artists of his generation due to the variety of the media and techniques he employs.
Kevin Lyons is a creative director, designer, illustrator & fashion designer all in one and has made a name in the creative industry with his unique and highly recognizable drawing style.
James Jean has made his mark as an illustrator in the global marketing industry and has for some years devoted his time almost exclusively to a very successful painting career.
Roids has built up a solid international reputation over the last 10 years for his innovation and technical skills. He mainly draws graffiti and works as a visual artist and as a creative director in his own studio in South London.
It’s not only about what the beer taste like anymore. These days, independent people have dedicated their life to be beer makers. They have a great passion to continuing create a huge variation of different kinds of beer. During the years, the result of their passion for brewing has increased their passion for the visual language of the beer.
The art, design and the packaging are as important as the brewing. The attention to details in the whole development of the hand made image has become the new cultural movement in the industry. Hand made and hand drawn labels are an artistic method to visualize this whole brewing-process and the passion behind it. Beer is not just beer anymore. It is about the correlation between beer labels and beer packaging and the quality of the taste of the beer, as much as it is about the actual brewing. Imagine one drives to the store to by a beer, and walking among the brewery’s handcrafted beers. It is the label that catches first the attention to the consumer. It is important for the breweries to maintain and hold on to that visual passion for the label and packaging. The art and design in the labels are helping to shape a new independent art form in the industry. The fact that the canvas is tiny and small is revolutionary.
Despite the art we are familiar with today, paintings on huge canvas and sculptures in all kinds of sizes, films and music with abstract and surrealistic content. A beer label is an unexpected art medium. One does not think about the label as an art medium. It is just small piece of paper with information about the content in a bottle, but when one take a closer look and spending a few seconds or minutes to observe the design it can be as touching as observing a painting or a sculpture.
This is an experiment with the label for BrewDog Company, illustarted by the talented artist Johanna Basford.The illustration is something for the eye to see.
I had draw the heineken label myself. Further on I went to the printroom and started screenprinting the labels. It came out quiet allright, and I believe that experimenting with this label gave it a more artistic visual language
Different methods have been taking in use for create a new visual artistic language in the labels. We are creating and designing a wholeness to the concept that everything is to be hand made. Through screen print and letterpress, one can express their hand drawn labels in a more artistic way. I have screenprinted a regular label, Heineken and a hand drawn label, Brewdog.
After doing a lot of research on other peoples work I wanted to make my own labels, to get the feeling of doing something hand made, and to understand this a process. I made a label from scratch, hand drawn and screen printed. I realized that designing a label is not just about develop a good design with lovely typography. It is much more than that. Like everything else in the industry it is a great process. From idea, concept to material and final result. This process is about
making beer labels as an art medium.
The different methods one use to visualize and create a stunning piece of art. A piece one actually could hang up on the wall as an artwork.
Johnny Rooftop is a concept and a visual idea with a true creation of two brothers. It became a term they called each other. It all started in the Internal City, Rome. On the top of the building where they were living, was a beautiful rooftop. “I have always had this wacky thing for rooftops. Its place where one can feel a live. Watch the view over the city, listen to the surroundings, and feel the light air of breeze up there.� Johnny Rooftop became a term for this kind of feeling. He is a man on top of the roof drinking beer, playing football and creating his own atmosphere.
I wanted to catch the attention to Johanna Basford,so I created an own beer label to her with my questions,and a beer box with my project title, and shipped it off to Scotland, Aberdeen.
Hi Johanna, I’m a graphic design student from Norway, studying at Solent Uni in Southampton. I have this thesis about hand-drawn beer labels, and that beer labels is becoming a great art medium. I think that beer labels should have its own category inside the art industry. I want to try interviewing the people, illustrators and designers that inspires me. I have this great passion for your work and illustrations. I really love your work for Brewdog on their beer labels. It is so beautiful and fascinating to look at. You create this new world on such a tiny format. It is so inspiring! It would be a great pleasure and a very nice gesture if I could ask you a few questions about your work for and with the Brewdog Company.
The interview with Johanna Basford. The creative illustrator from Scotland, Aberdeen. Made a lot of beautiful labels for Brew Dog Company.
Here you go Nicolas! I should probably add the disclaimer that James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog is my husband… But you perhaps already knew that!
When you create and develop the illustrations for the beer labels, for example the “Old world Indian Pale Ale.” How much of the visual language do you get to decide? Everything. Not all clients leave the brief this open, but BrewDog just tell me the size of the label and leave the rest to me. I create an illustration that fits the label dimensions, then they drop in the text and barcodes in house.
Do you have a free way of creating the labels, or do you have a strict structure from the Brewdog Company? I get a template with bleed and dimensions, any notes about required space for text etc and the name of the beer and some background. The rest is left completely open.
What inspires you to create that kind of illustration? BrewDog beers usually have pretty awesome stories to them. They always have unusual ingredients or a quirky name or something that plants the seed of an idea. Once I hear the story of the beer, I usually just start mulling over some ideas until I find something that I think will be not only beautiful, but also work on the dimensions of a beer label.
Does it, in any way have something to do with the taste of the beer? Or is it about what the beer represents it self? No. I design labels for their specail edition beers and these are always still being brewed when I make the label. I sometimes incorporate the ingredients into the label, for example Special Bashah has black raspberries in the illustration, but I didn’t taste the beer prior to drawing the artwork.
Do you get to create a story about the illustration? For example where the beer come from and how it is made. Yes, see above.
I think that hand-drawn beer labels give the beer more character, personality and a visual artistic language. It seems to me that it is more about the art and the beer. Do you see it as an art medium? Yes, definitely. A beer bottle is just another canvas on which to create something beautiful and charming. I like to think that there is a work of art both inside and outside the bottle and that each is made with care and love.
Beer Labels An Art Medium Photo Nicolas Ness Turco Text Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration Nicolas Ness Turco My own hand drawings
Self made Label Photo Nicolas Ness Turco Text Nicolas Ness Turco
Origins & History Photo https://www.flickr.com/photos/24018267@N00/14446593674 Text http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbrewery Text 2Nicolas Ness Turco
Self made Label Photo Katrhine Saeter Text Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration Nicolas Ness Turco
Jim Stitt & Anchor Brewery Photo https://www.google.com/JimStitt/anchor/lebals Text 1 https://www.google.com/JimStitt/anchor/lebals Text 2Nicolas Ness Turco
Anchor Brewery the Labels Photo https://www.google.com/JimStitt/anchor/lebals Text Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration Nicolas Ness Turco
Johnny Rooftop Label Warsteiner and the Art Collection 2014
Photo Nicolas Ness Turco Text Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration Nicolas Ness Turco
Photo http://hypebeast.com/2014/8/warsteiner-unveils-its-2014-art-collectionwith-fafi-ron-english-dface-kevin-lyons-james-jean-and-roids/ Text 1 http://www.warsteiner.com/artcollection/en/ Text 2 Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration Nicolas Ness Turco
Siren and Nomada Beer Labels Photo http://www.hotrumcow.co.uk/beautiful-beer-by-design/ Text 1 http://www.hotrumcow.co.uk/beautiful-beer-by-design/ Text 2 Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration Nicolas Ness Turco I have traced from a picture of the label, which I found on http://google.com/images/nomada/beer/labels.
Creating the Interview Photo Nicolas Ness Turco Text Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration Nicolas Ness Turco
All hands on deck!
Originial
Photo Nicolas Ness Turco Text Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration Nicolas Ness Turco
Experimenting with screen prints Photo Nicolas Ness Turco Text Nicolas Ness Turco Illustration 1 label 1 Johanna Basford Illustration 2 label 2 Nicolas Ness Turco