MARKET TRENDS

MOUNTAIN DEW FLAMIN’ HOT collaboration with Cheetos

Two top-selling PepsiCo brands teamed up, giving the sweet citrus taste of Mountain Dew a spicy edge. This edgy collaboration also resulted in eye-catching cans displaying fiery red, lime, yellow, black, and orange flame graphics. The two PepsiCo brands teamed up to combine the sweet, citrus taste of Mountain Dew with a new spicy edge, in cans displaying fiery red, lime yellow, black and orange flame graphics. The fiery flame design was enough to help produce unprecedented sellout results. “As a brand, Dew has a rich history of experimenting with new flavors our fans love,” says Matt Nielsten, senior director, marketing, for Mountain Dew. “We certainly had them in mind when we developed the Flamin’ Hot beverage. This is one of our most provocative beverages yet, and we’re excited for DEW Nation to taste the unique blend of spicy and classic sweet citrus flavor.” This hot-selling beverage is only available to purchase online.

METAL PACK DECORATION as Art

Metal package decorating trends for beverage applications are becoming more dramatic and eye-catching, from geometric color blocking to finely-detailed ink drawings and fleshed-out characters.

Graphic designs are moving beyond the “commercial,” to looks that resemble pieces of art. That’s because metal cans provide marketers with more visual real estate ― a 360-degree canvas ― providing branding opportunities and innovations that are practically endless. They also play a pivotal role in e-commerce, which is a part of our everyday lives. But by using e-commerce, we sacrifice the experience of walking through a retail store, being surrounded by a curated brand ambience, something even the most immersive website can’t produce. To meet the challenge, many packaging designers and brand owners are upping the ante to deliver a piece of branding that creates a new, more immersive experience through uniquely decorated packaging. Whether for ecommerce or retail, the graphics featured on today’s metal beverage cans provide a new, more immersive brand experience. Not to replace the in-store experience, but to meet customers where they are now, and where they will be tomorrow.

GORDON RAMSAY’S NEW LINE OF SELTZERS

Gordon Ramsay’s ‘Hell's Seltzer’ will be sold in 11 US States by producer Brew Pipeline. The hard seltzer was launched earlier this year and distribution will now be expanded to more states. Hell’s Seltzer, which is comes in four Hell’s Kitcheninspired flavours including: Berry Inferno, Knicker Twist, Mean Green and That’s Forked, will now be available in: New York/New Jersey; Massachusetts; Rhode Island; North Carolina; Virginia; Michigan; Illinois; Arizona; Missouri; Colorado and Nevada.

Brew Pipeline and flavour consultants, Lift Bridge Brewing Company, worked with Ramsay on the development of each drink, which is a 5.6% abv allnatural, gluten-free, hard seltzer. the availability of Hell’s Seltzer to partners and consumers across the country,” said Scott Ebert, president of Brew Pipeline. “The early reviews by consumers, along with the success in markets by our partners and retailers, is driving demand and the need for expansion with increased production. Everyone is loving the unique flavor profiles inspired by Gordon’s restaurants. It truly is one Hell of a Seltzer.”

JACKIE O’S BREWERY woodcut designs

Whimsical story-driven graphics and quirky characters, vintage-inspired designs and expressive colors are hot for 2022. The retro look of the “hippy” days likely inspired the bohemianstyle aesthetics for a number of intricate woodcut designs for Under a Cloud Hazy Pale Ale from craft brewer Jackie O’s Brewery, Athens, Ohio (an INX Can Design Contest runner-up, pictured right). The can for this hoppy and fruity brew features a stormy scene with rain clouds, raindrops, lightning strikes, umbrellas and a blue possum. Other can artwork stems from ideas the brewery’s design team and brewers provide to artist Bryn Perrott (@deerjerk), who creates the woodcut designs. Extensions of the colorful, detailed woodcut graphics were also applied to Jackie O’s aromatic raspberry Razz Wheat Ale, New Growth Summer Spruce, Mystic Mamma and Wildflower ale flavors.

This trend seems to merge the past with the present, just like Jackie O’s brewing techniques, which marry traditional methods and influences with contemporary elements to create a most diverse beer portfolio, focused on barrel/wood aging and blending.

A WORK OF ART, crafted inside and out

For craft breweries, their products are an expression of creativity, tradition, experimentation, and good taste. If their beer is an artform, the brand owners reason, why not make the packaging look like art? With the help of talented designers and savvy marketers, the can labels and packaging have become a place where identities are developed and stories are told.

The variety is endless. There’s geometric and technical drawings, organically-shaped color blocking, finely illustrated vintage-look designs that resemble artworks, and solid, all-over color with pithy copy. Craft beer can labels have become an artist’s canvas. It is an opportunity on the outside of the can to express the artisanal quality on the inside of the can. With so many innovative inks and advanced printing methods available, brewers and artists can achieve almost any look that brings their vision to life.

BLEND Old World and New World styles

Breweries and distilleries that blend Old World and New World styles in their products are employing sophisticated in-house graphic designers for their packaging. Justin Longoz creates labels for Four Winds Brewery, Delta, B.C., that are distinctive, colorful and heavily patterned. Many of the Four Winds cans wear jewel-toned, geometric weaves and wallpaperlike designs, "Craft beer is an art form unto itself," Longoz says. "It only seems appropriate to put something artful in an artful vessel."

NEON RAINBOWS Making a statement with neon strips

It’s no longer enough to give a package a few details. Expect to see can graphics for beer, wine, liquor and seltzer cans encompassing an entire brand experience, making use of textures, shapes, materials and above-and-beyond imagery. Cans for the Neon Rainbows varieties of the OMG Series of New England IPAs from Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, N.Y., are incredibly impactful, making a statement with neon strips in electric pink, royal blue, acid green and yellow and hot orange, as well as jagged lightning designs that can’t go unnoticed.