Other Half Brewing November 2017

This thread is why Trump won.

 

LOL. Cmon dude. Haring was a close personal friend of Basquiats and that piece was done as a tribute to him after his death.

You certainly spent a lot of time on your post tho, so there’s that?

 

So how much do you usually tip the artist of a good can label?

 

Yes, I'm aware. Doesn't negate the crux of the argument though.

 

I think you guys should have an artist name-drop-off, in-person, with pinkies out. Winner takes all.

 

I think it is hilarious that "Can Art" is now the complaint. I guess with OH cutting limits for this Saturday no one can bitch about "limits" anymore. New yorkers have to find something to bitch about.

 

2nd Anniversary is still my favorite OH label (and probably one of my favorite OH beers for that matter.)

Like them or not, can artwork is very much an important aspect in the current world of craft beer marketing and the Instagram “gotta-catch-em-all” culture that supports it.

 

No idea how to share Instagram posts here but Trillium is releasing the massive collab OH was apart of with Monkish, Cloudwater and the Veil @ Trillium today.

Fireplace Bananas, Imperial Stout with Bananas

 

Thanks! lol

 

Honestly, I have zero interest in this beer. I can’t see it being too noteworthy other than a gimmick. I dont like banana flavors in anything but bananas. Had a banana dunkel once (Lips of Faith I believe) and thought it was awful.

 

No interest here really, just figured I'd share for anyone who was looking out for it. Seems very gimmicky to me.

 

My brother said he can pick me up a bottle tomorrow, so hopefully it lasts that long.

 

Maybe OH gets a keg to throw on in the taproom. Has happened with remotely released collabs before.

 

Design isn't completely irrelevant. If a brewery is paying attention to the outside of a can there's a good chance they're paying attention to the inside.

KCBC has some of the highest-effort labels. Unique hand-drawn illustrations for each can, I think they're sick.

LIC's labels are a bit frenetic, but they're an homage to Basquiat and look just like the graffitied facades that adorn the neighborhood.

OH never seemed to prioritize design much (remember when it was mostly the name of a hop set in the same font every time, but with a different color?) but nowadays if I have a can somewhere someone usually asks me what it is because the can looks neat.

Lowest-effort goes to Treehouse. Their flagship beer labels are just their Microsoft Word clipart logo with a different color behind it. The illustrated ones are cool though (like Lights On).

 

I always thought OH can designs were really cool, specially the early printed ones like Hop Showers and Forever Ever.

 

All of the breweries you mentioned have taken wildly different approaches to their labels.

KCBC works with a local comic book illustrator (https://www.instagram.com/funnybonestuff). Seems like the dudes behind the brewery are just fans of his work and like the playful comic nature of the designs.

LIC (in their can labels, interior design, larger brand) has very much attempted to play up the urban, DIY nature of the brewery. Specifically, they seem to want to harness the industrial vibe of their immediate 'hood and reflect that in the way they present themselves and their product (how successful they've been is a matter of personal opinion).

OH has long worked with a branding agency (Small Stuff) to cultivate their branding strategy and design their labels.

And regarding Tree House, I also initially fell under the assumption that their can designs were pretty much afterthoughts and that, aside from those they commission from that local illustrator (Curiosities and such), the logo-based designs were somewhat lazy. However, I've come to appreciate the importance of recognizability in this Instagram-driven subculture of beer, where feeds of stacked can hauls and multitudes of social media-based beer reviewers can drive enough hype to literally make a multi-million dollar business. I can't help but think that the omnipresence of their logo and those iconic orange/green/purple colors on social media has played a part in their growth and success over the past few years! At the least, it hasn't hindered them one bit, which, I think, contributes to newer breweries adopting a similar approach and choosing to go with a single, repetitive style rather than investing in an artist/illustrator/agency (see: Equilibrium).

 

For any BA’ers in upper Manhattan, Bronx or Yonkers, the Bronx beer hall is doing an other half tap takeover first time other half is in the Bronx! Thursday night.

 

Choosing to outsource your labels to an artist/illustrator/agency is a business decision. Every brewery in this area does it. It has nothing to do with the quality of whats in the can, something most folks cant see past. If you want to run a business, it something that needs to be considered, otherwise why make the jump from homebrewing? Its an investment in your community and in your future as a business.

 

kaws