Are you influenced by label design?

I dropped back in here to say this. I responded as if I was talking about conscious influence, then got sidetracked.
But yes. Humans are highly irrational, and tend to pick things for reasons they are completely unaware of (e.g., liking something you have seen before more than something completely novel and rationalizing the decision).

 

For me the label plays very little in my factor for the beer. I use the age old saying do not judge a book by its cover.

 

Hopefully it doesn't sound too pretentious, but yes. Just like album art for music, the artwork on a bottle or can is a big part of the beer to me. There's something to be said for breweries that strive to create a piece of art to match what's inside. I love the look of beers made by breweries like Trillium, Grimm, Other Half, Finback, etc. To me, what is displayed on the outside can sometimes tell me how much the brewery cares about what's on the inside.

 

Rarely, but if the label looks cheap then I assume that the beer is of low quality but I've tasted beers with low quality labels that taste great.

 

Yes, but I can't help it as a designer by trade.

 

For me I think an interesting looking label will at least cause me to want to take a closer look to see if that's a beer I want to try.

 

It can make me pick up a beer that I might have passed over. For example I grabbed this beer mainly for the artwork.

 

I actually like Lagunitas beer labels. Im drinking a Hop Stoopid as I'm typing this.

But yes some times while I'm browsing the beer aisle i tend to hover more to something that will catch my eye, something flashy or peaks my interest. Yes there are alot of great beers that have boring/ugly labels... i.e. New Hollands (new label art) but that doesnt mean I wont try them eventually. I love New Hollands brews. Also dont care for Dogfish Head art but their beers are excellent.

Its what inside that counts...

But yes I tend to gravitate towards label art that interests me.

CHEERS

 

There is some creative work in labels these days. I even like some labels on bad beers but it does not make me like the beer.

 

I'm not really religious person but I'm not a fan of demons, demonic, masonic beer labels. And yeah I rarely by anything from Stone.. 3 Floyds makes me scratch my head as well

 

Yes....and no...with varying results, sometimes good...sometimes bad....

Terrible answer, I know.

For example...

I've tried some of Dark Horse's offerings simply because I love that brewery's garish artwork. Plead the Fifth and Scotty Karate are great beers with great labels. Kamikaze and others....meh.

On the other hand, Mahleur's labels look like overly commercialized nonsense, but are great brews.

 

Some of the time, yes.

I think what happens a lot of times is ties go to the cooler label. I'd also say the label draws me in more than the name.

Anyway ... I said all that to say this: label talk always makes me think of Karbach and how genius they were at marketing via the cool label. Their original lineup of beers came out in cans with catchy two-tone solid color schemes that screamed "BUY ME! LOOK HOW COOL I AM!" They've maintained that color scheme through seasonals and additions to the lineup.






Looking at them here as single cans doesn't deliver the same artistic pop that piles and piles of 6-packs in those color schemes deliver. When I first got back into good beer in winter 2012-13, the colors drew me in and forced me to learn about Karbach and their stacks of cool colored cans of beer.

If their beer had sucked, I'd likely have associated the cool labels with sucky beer and stopped buying Karbach stuff. But Sympathy became my favorite beer, and all of their stuff was great, so the label meant awesome beer -- and when I saw a new color scheme, I'd always get excited and buy. Technically, I was buying because of the company name and reputation, but those labels ... they attracted thousands of us here in Texas.

 

Thats funny, I went to the brewery and got a growler of tunnel of trees because I wanted the artwork on the growler.

 

Pass. I tried the IPA and Pale ale. Not good. Very thin and watery. Mild flavor. Bought s six of each( my wife liked the labels). Four different people tried these and no one was impressed. I took the leftovers to a party and a few made it back to my place on New Years.

Enjoy

 

It does not influence my purchase but I enjoy neat labels and artwork.

 

Packaging influences everyone, regardless of whether or not they are willing to admit it. If you're in the store looking for something new and you are trying to decide between two new pale ales with very similar ratings online, what are you going to choose? The one with the label that looks gaudy and was probably designed by the brewer's nephew in his intro to computer design class, or the one with the really cool label artwork and interesting description?

It depends on the store and the situation though. If I'm just browsing a random package store with nothing particular in mind and nothing real rare on the shelves, I might end up picking something just because of the label. If I'm in a real good bottle shop with lots of rare stuff from breweries that I like, I'm not going to bother looking at the other labels because I'm probably spending too much already and I don't plan on dropping anything I already picked up.

 

I'll buy beer with cool/interesting labels. Sometimes it's a no brainer because it's from a highly thought of brewery that I'll be racing to find before anyone else in the store does (as if there's 25 other people there looking for it when there's usually not) but also giving unknown breweries a try. I personally am not worried about how much I'm spending when out-of-state because that's why I'm beer shopping there... to try something new. I'll enjoy beers that I haven't read reviews about from certain breweries & sometimes I damn near regret purchasing said beer, but label artwork doesn't overrule my style preference. If its a lager or pilsner I'm not buying it regardless of what the label looks like. In the end... it's all beer... some taste better than others & some have more intriguing labels but we won't know if it's worth it until we try it ourselves.

 

I'll add that it helps make my decision as to what NOT to choose. Cartoonish labels are a turn-off for me; I take the beer seriously and would hope the brewery does as well. If it's apparent that the label is an afterthought, then the beer is rushed in my eyes.

Classy labels like Logsdon are a good example of something that I'd look for in a random label on the shelf. Also, if the brewery has a professional artist do their labels (Prairie and Beachwood Blendery) it's a bonus, though I probably wouldn't know that until I've already fallen in love with their beer anyway....

 

Isn't it funny but the label can only influence me not to buy the beer. I won't buy a beer if the label is somehow offensive or if it does not have any information on it that is useful. For example, style of beer, abv and bottled on date. Offensive like "dirty blonde goes down easy" ( or whatever it said) and the brown note. Along the same lines evil twin soft dookie. Do you know what that means? I won't buy it. Also labels that use profanity. citra ass down is a cute name but lets not drink all kinds of "ass" beer.