The Best-Designed Beers for Your Cooler
Designers geek out on bottles and cans that are works of art themselves.
For the 57% of Americans who disapprove of our current bigot-in-chief, this year’s Independence Day celebrations might trigger more conflicting feelings than usual. And many will deal with those emotions the traditional American way: by drinking lots of beer.
In a starkly divided country, beer is perhaps one of the last great unifiers. From Michelob’s eagle to Pabst’s blue ribbon, the labels and logos of big-name beers are flags flown proudly in both red and blue states alike. These classic graphics are examples of how a label design — as much as, say, taste or aroma — can determine a beer’s appeal.
No one knows this better than the art directors and graphic designers helping to drive today’s microbrewery boom. A record number of breweries are currently operating in the U.S., upping the ante for craft beer labels to stand out on crowded store shelves. The result is a golden age of booze packaging, with a rotating selection of cans and labels you might want to display on your wall instead of tossing out with the recycling.
To help stem the tide of red-white-and-blue Bud cans this summer, Magenta asked 11 graphic designers to nominate the best-designed beer labels currently on the market. With visual inspiration drawn from 1930s QSL radio cards and San Francisco’s Victorian architecture, to retro arcade games and tiki-bar kitsch, here are the best-looking brews for filling up your cooler this Independence Day.
With a look created by the excellent Swedish studio Snask, this series brings a refreshing irreverence to the craft beer market. The label riffs on a kitsch tiki concept to create something totally unexpected, combining a minimal black and pastel color palette with typography that looks like it’s been photocopied from someone’s collection of 1950s signage photography. And it’s all capped off with an almost anti-logo that looks like it’s been ripped from a DIY punk zine. All in all, it achieves a rare feat of balancing all of these elements in an industry in which far more simple labels feel over-designed. — Vincent Casey
Austin Beerworks labels have always been slightly askew of the norm. They “look” like beer, but they don’t look like most other beer labels. From a design standpoint, these are sexy because they are pared-down, minimal little posters using the brand’s very recognizable “A.” I give ABW tons of credit for their bravery in taking a chance on these cans and also Helms Workshop for sticking to their guns and continuing to put out great, forward-thinking packaging. —James Victore
As the craft beer category becomes increasingly crowded, it’s becoming really difficult to find ownable names and visuals. While on vacation in Oregon, my boss ran across this great beer brand, Buoy Brewing. I’m deeply envious of the brewery’s four-letter name, B-U-O-Y! It’s a short, unique word, and, set in a condensed typeface, it leaps off the can. There’s a wonderful accessibility in the “no frills” approach to the design. The illustration of the buoy itself makes for an interesting visual, and I really like how the designers at Grady Britton simply repeats the core elements of the design for each of its different beer cans. Overall, there’s a compelling sense of honesty and a connection to the region in the visual design of the can. —Jacob Carter
I love Rogue’s confident stance in simply placing the key art on the can front, unadorned by type. It’s a move that not every beer could pull off. I’m a big fan of that swagger, and an even bigger fan of giving your audience credit for being intelligent and curious.
Dead Guy has been around for a long time, which is a double-edged sword in craft beer. Leveraging the most recognizable piece of art in their portfolio in a way that reintroduces and reignites a longtime offering is a smart, bold move. — Christian Helms
Emrich Office’s work for Bottle Logic’s Hazy IPA series is as satisfying and juicy as the beer it holds. Every year, Bottle Logic creates a fun, themed brand for its anniversary called “Week of Logic,” with this year’s revolving around retro arcade.
As part of the series, Emrich created an ’80s-style pack of stickers, which were then used as the primary elements for the Hazy IPA cans. What I love the most is that these cans don’t have a traditional front or back, inviting you to pick up each can and discover nostalgic things like a “Beer-Master” View-Master sticker, or which gamer snack pairs best with the beer. Beyond that, the naming convention adds another level of wit, with each beer labeled after a Konami cheat code (i.e., “Left Right Left Right” or “Down Down”); a clever move considering how limiting beer naming can be these days.
Excellent beer and excellent design don’t intersect as often as they should. The consistently great work that Emrich produces for Bottle Logic shows that the client trusts their designer, and the designer loves the collaboration. — Alana Louise Lyons
At first glance, these labels, designed by Jeff Rogers, stand out among the many I have come across. The approach is a brilliant one — beautifully linking the brand to the historically appropriate QSL radio codes. I felt a sense of discovery like I had happened upon a delicious artifact, and rightfully so.
Although the labels seem complex, the content is fun, informative, and pleasantly presented. The attention to detail on these labels is remarkable. There are stamp-like icons and forms filled out with what seems to be an actual typewriter, which gives the label authenticity. Signatures of the brewer and other hand-rendered markings feel very sincere and personal. They are truly pieces of art. — Ryan Feerer
In the current sea of trendy, global craft beers, Franziskaner Weissbier, which dates back to 1363, has stood the test of time for both its popularity and striking, clean packaging. The Munich beer label features a smiling Franciscan monk as he peers into a stein of beer. It was beautifully drawn by the German graphic designer Ludwig Hohlwein, who was famous for focusing on few design elements; light and dark, foreground and background and readable, timeless typography. The hand-drawn blackletter is appropriate for the beer’s 14th-century origins, and I think it still looks fresh and timeless today. — Gabriele Wilson
I have always been a big fan of San Francisco studio Manual. The work the studio did for San Francisco’s fastest-growing craft brewery, Fort Point, is just stunning. The brewery resides in a historic Presidio building that provided the designers with inspiration for a modular, illustrative brand identity. This is adapted in the designs of cans, bottles, packaging, and beer tabs, all rendered in an atypical color palette for a beer brand. I also really love the “Fort Point” type logo — it’s great to see serif type being used in a fresh and modern way. — George Simkin
It took me years to teach myself to stop buying wine based solely on interesting label design and typography. Inevitably, I’d have a shelf full of bottles I’d never drink but whose package design I found mesmerizing. Fortunately, buying beer based on that same premise is usually a bit easier on the wallet. I bought a bottle of Omnipollo’s Stillwater Premium Remix last year at my local shop. Once again, I simply couldn’t resist the draw of the label. Omnipollo is the 2011 brainchild of Henok Fentie and Karl Grandin — they develop recipes in Sweden and travel to different breweries worldwide to collaborate on the production. The visually distinctive Stillwater Premium Remix label features beautiful hand-drawn lettering by Grandin over a vintage Stillwater Artisanal label. Fortunately, the beer was incredibly drinkable as well. — Doug Bartow
In the supermarket, Carlsberg sits amongst its fellow big-brand, pale lager competitors, which all convey a similar premium design aesthetic. With their minimal, beautiful use of shape, color, and pattern, these cans and bottles, designed by Taxi Studio, sing from the shelf and stand out like no other in the category. It’s a super intriguing, bold, and unexpected design from a huge commercial brewery. — Matt Burns
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with Grimm Vacay. I’m a fan of most of Grimm’s beers — the labels are all amazing and unique. But this one caught my eye when I saw it on the shelf at my nearby beer shop. Its effective simplicity made it stand out from the visually overloaded bunch. It’s really minimal but not boring — the shapes are organic and fun, the color combination is spot on. It has a nice summery vibe without being cheesy — it just looks really cool. — Jose Guizar
