You’re not just paying for a designer…

their skills. Although I am not opposed to fair exchange agreements, such as a hobbyist friend receiving a few cases of beer in exchange for designing a beer label every now and again, once someone starts earning a living from their creative work, the payment received compensates for the hard work that the client does not have to put in themselves.

Sound Advice

Over the years, I’ve been asked to use all kinds of fonts, colours and graphic elements that should never belong in the same universe together, let alone on the same piece of paper.

While skilled designers will bring a client's vision to life, they also have a responsibility to professionally push back and steer the brand away from potential design disasters. While this can wound egos in the short term, it can save a brand from losing face in the long run.

Taking the pain out of print

Design and print are siblings. When the relationship is harmonious, they get on like a house on fire; if not, they can burn down the house. Working with printers can be challenging even under the best circumstances. One of the undervalued services designers provide is preparing illustrations for printing on a variety of applications and printers, which requires a unique skill set. This is a crucial aspect of the design process that clients pay for.

Consistency and Harmony

Brand consistency is highly valued by breweries, but often businesses are reluctant to invest in it. It is crucial that every design element, from social media posts to printed beer labels, aligns with the brand's overall aesthetic to maintain consistency throughout all touchpoints.

Each design should be viewed as a piece of music, with the brand as the album; the designer acts as the producer, guiding these elements into a unified whole and ensuring that everything is in the right place.

Detail

My former boss was adamant that "the devil's in the detail," a value instilled in me by my dad, who believed that ‘if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly!’.

Unfortunately, many clients overlook the importance of proofreading and checking the finer details, which can be surprisingly common.

This is where the value of a skilled designer comes in; they ensure that all details, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, are correct, not just the design elements.

In Conclusion

Branding is a crucial aspect of any business, and breweries are no exception. While many breweries take a DIY approach to branding to save money, it's important to recognise the true value that skilled designers bring to the table.

By partnering with a skilled designer, breweries can create a visually appealing and recognizable brand that resonates with customers, drives sales, and builds loyalty. So, if you're a brewer looking to create a brand that stands out on the shelves, it's time to put down the wire strippers and reach out to a qualified designer.

Nick Law is the Creative Director of Hop Forward: a branding, marketing and business consultancy for the brewing industry. He works with a variety of beer businesses both in the UK and overseas and also runs a weekly podcast with a variety of guests from across the world of beer. Find out more at www.hopforward.beer or email nick@hopforward.beer

Any of you who have seen KAM present recently will have likely seen the stat that 88% of us want pubs/bars to provide an experience we can’t get at home. Customers are increasingly looking to spend their evertightening disposable income on memorable experiences as opposed to physical goods, particularly within the younger generations. We’ve seen a boom in Competitive Socialising venues where you can throw axes or have a round of crazy golf while you socialise (sounds exhausting!) but at the most simplistic level, a quality experience can of course be achieved through providing a quality F&B offering that can’t be replicated in our kitchen or an atmosphere you simply can’t get from hosting at home. Which brings me on to our latest research, carried out in partnership with Budvar UK, which identified that perhaps our beer customers in particular aren’t getting quite the experience we’d hope for in the UK ontrade. The fact that 93% of beer drinkers had been served a “bad pint” suggests that a substandard experience for many beer drinkers is currently costing the on-trade significantly. In a time when ‘experience is everything’ but also ‘every penny counts’ the research exposes a pressing need for our industry to address this issue fast.

Serving a top-quality pint plays a vital role in delivering customers an experience that they can’t easily replicate at home. The theatre, the serve and the taste are just things which makes the British Pub so special. However, not everyone is getting it right. Steve Alton, CEO BII, put it well when he said that “beer served through dirty lines is like food served on a dirty plate”, and yet around 1 in 4 beer lines in the UK are currently deemed to be unclean.

So, what is the reality for beer drinkers at the moment?

The vast majority of beer drinkers have been served a bad pint (93%) and 7% say this happens “often”. That may not seem like a huge figure but that equates to a LOT of bad pints and poor customers experiences. The cost of not getting ‘beer quality’ right is significant, especially to the venues which