Dear Deschutes

Agree completely. The side-by-side layout on the holder (art on the left, beer brand on the right) feels inconsistent to me. Something like this would've tied in a lot more closely with the new label, IMO:


That said, maybe the client didn't want the name of the beer down at the bottom of the holder, where it might be blocked by other products. I don't know.

 

I'll admit, the labels did remind me a little of the new GL labels but one thing Deschutes did right was to keep the old images intact. Eliot Ness and Edmund Fitzgerald especially had very cool images on the old labels that were changed/stylized in a less appealing way.

 

I think the new labels / branding is great. I think it's an edgy look with the black background and prominent deschutes lettering. The outdoors images are still nice.

We all miss the embossed bottles. Some of my favorite to use when packaging homebrew. Makes it look more classy.

 

I actually like the new label design overall, and I'd vote to keep it. What I don't like is the new logo itself, and specifically, the *font* used for the new logo. It's too angular and industrial-looking. 10 bucks says that typeface is not going to age well.

 

Imperial in PDX tasting announcement on FB:

https://www.facebook.com/events/453127674867700/

Chasin' Freshies Mosaic was my only real FH beer, last year. So damn good! Pumped to see what these other beers offer!

 

I think the bottles look good but it keeps throwing my brain for a loop in the grocery store after being so accustomed to those yellow labels. I'll live.

 

I'm a huge fan-boy of Mirror Mirror, Abyss, Black Butte series but indifferent about their shelf beers. Can take 'em or leave 'em and don't care about their labels one way or the other.

 

In the ever expanding beer world, bigger breweries have to stay fresh and new if they want to succeed. Obsidian Stout is one of my favorite beers and I know what the label looks like even if it has changed. But they aren't just catering to us that go, "ARMORY! YES!" or, "OBSIDIAN! YES!", they're hoping to catch the eye of people who have never tried Deschutes before and that walk into a grocery store and see a big, colorful label on a six-pack.

Labels are liars sometimes though... I've had some REALLY bad beer before with really nice labeling and have had AMAZING beer with bland labeling (Churchkey?).

I, personally, like the new labeling but I liked the older, oval logo. Meh, whatever, I'll still buy their beer.

 

dobt care about the label, give us some cans deschutes. just imagine a pounder of fresh squeezed

 

I hear you, though I'm envious you can buy Silver City beers where you shop for beer, even by mistake!. I actually liked the Deschutes labels BEFORE those that just became the old labels (I think they were the original ones), and wish I could find some schwag from those days.

 

This makes me really glad I kept a couple of the old Edmund Fitzgerald bottles around. It's like they said, "We want a lamer version of our old label, please."

 

The font on Obsidian reminds me of the one favored by the ****s. Perhaps there's a secret subculture of neo-**** beer geeks out there that Deschutes is trying to reach.

 

That's kind of unfair, but it does illustrate that the ****s not only destroyed the history of the swastika, they also tarnished the image of a lettering style which had already been in use for centuries.

Fraktur was the most popular style of blackletter in Germany since the mid-16th century. While it is true that the ****s originally used fraktur (again, 400 years of prior use in Germany), they were actually the ones who abolished its use in 1941.

FWIW, I get more "heavy metal" than "****" from the Obsidian Stout font, but your mileage may vary.

Edit for Obligatory Beer, since this is not FontAdvocate: I like Obsidian Stout, and I ought to install some in my fridge this weekend.

 

I guess I went **** as history was my focus in college. FWIW, I think Fraktur was embraced by heavy metal for the same reasons as the half-helmet and iron cross was embraced by certain bikers: to deliberately outrage, long a standard behavior in rock n' roll..

Everyone should install some Obsidian in their fridge if they get the chance, even running the risk of it recruiting the milk and veggies as skinheads.

 

I had a bottle of the new label Mirror Pond last night. The label tasted the same as the old one.

 

I don't think guajolote's palate is mature enough to catch the nuances of fresh vs. aged label glue. I get a really pleasant glue/oxidation note from the old labels. Sure, there's a nice pop to the new labels, but they're still a bit hot from the glue gun and need to mellow a bit before they reach their prime.

 

I prefer the ones that have been extensively dry labelled, they create a real enhanced glue aroma with some pleasant quaffs of paper fiber and whiffs of ink. The mouth feel is quite chewy and sticky and the flavour starts out quite resinous, a bit earthy and with an extremely dry finish and a chemical gluey aftertaste.