First Batch deserves First Label

After a lot of time and work and looking around for ideas I have come up with this as a baseline for a logo/label design. Any comments/constructive criticism are appreciated good or bad. I take pride in my work and I want to do things right from the start.

I have yet to do this before and have not printed, I hope everything is still legible when printed small, look like this will be an issue at all?

For now numbers and stuff are made up for designing purposes.

Which color looks best?

I prefer the bottom label. It is very clean and easy to read. Like that it is a solid color. Very nice work!

Looks fantastic. Great use of color. I like either label.

Looks great, the full color label doesn't draw attention to the instruction box and the warning box, which keeps the focus on the beer. I have noticed that many home brewers are adding the govt warning, is that practice for when/if you go public, or is it to keep the friend of neighbor you give free beer to from bringing a law suit? I'm just curious, really and I'm from NY one the most litigious states around. I'm sure your good friends wouldn't do that!

Hoppy2bmerry said:

Looks great, the full color label doesn't draw attention to the instruction box and the warning box, which keeps the focus on the beer. I have noticed that many home brewers are adding the govt warning, is that practice for when/if you go public, or is it to keep the friend of neighbor you give free beer to from bringing a law suit? I'm just curious, really and I'm from NY one the most litigious states around. I'm sure your good friends wouldn't do that!

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I've always wondered that myself.

I think it's just to make it more "pro" looking. I just do the name and pics myself.

Don't even name my "brewery."

Hoppy2bmerry said:

Looks great, the full color label doesn't draw attention to the instruction box and the warning box, which keeps the focus on the beer. I have noticed that many home brewers are adding the govt warning, is that practice for when/if you go public, or is it to keep the friend of neighbor you give free beer to from bringing a law suit? I'm just curious, really and I'm from NY one the most litigious states around. I'm sure your good friends wouldn't do that!

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In my mind it is just to make it more professional looking and also to take up space.

Same with the brewery name, I am not artistic enough to do anything besides patterns/plain background and borders and what not so I needed something to take up a large portion of the label since there isn't artwork to draw attention.

Thanks for the feedback, just have to figure out how to get these laid out on paper and printed.

Nice job. Always a fan of clean, simple design and straight lines. The label with the white tabs is my preference. It keeps the focus on what is important and differentiates between sets of information. Well done.

On one of my early batches, I had a great time coming up with this label:


Over time, though, just the process of bottling became enough of a PIA that I have now regressed to this:

arnobg said:

In my mind it is just to make it more professional looking and also to take up space.

Same with the brewery name, I am not artistic enough to do anything besides patterns/plain background and borders and what not so I needed something to take up a large portion of the label since there isn't artwork to draw attention.

Thanks for the feedback, just have to figure out how to get these laid out on paper and printed.

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Thanks for your thoughts on this, your label does look professional! And, I didn't ask the question intending to be critical in anyway. My first beer is an Oktoberfest and my first label for is not so special, but I did include a comment about sediment and that it's alive for the people I'll share some with. :rockin:
As you can see I just snagged an image from the web and embellished it. Thanks again.

QuadConPana said:

On one of my early batches, I had a great time coming up with this label:

Over time, though, just the process of bottling became enough of a PIA that I have now regressed to this:

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Simple and easy I like it! I'm considering custom engraved caps and using one per 6 pack.

Hoppy2bmerry said:

Thanks for your thoughts on this, your label does look professional! And, I didn't ask the question intending to be critical in anyway. My first beer is an Oktoberfest and my first label for is not so special, but I did include a comment about sediment and that it's alive for the people I'll share some with. :rockin:
As you can see I just snagged an image from the web and embellished it. Thanks again.

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I like the logo and colors!

arnobg said:

After a lot of time and work and looking around for ideas I have come up with this as a baseline for a logo/label design. Any comments/constructive criticism are appreciated good or bad. I take pride in my work and I want to do things right from the start.

I have yet to do this before and have not printed, I hope everything is still legible when printed small, look like this will be an issue at all?

For now numbers and stuff are made up for designing purposes.

Which color looks best?

Click to expand...

Really like the simplicity/design. I think the one-color label attracts less attention to the sidebars. Has the look of a beer I'd want to try even if I didn't know what was inside. Good job!

GHBWNY said:

Really like the simplicity/design. I think the one-color label attracts less attention to the sidebars. Has the look of a beer I'd want to try even if I didn't know what was inside. Good job!

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Thanks that's actually my biggest reason for wanting to do labels besides the cool look. There's just something about a plain bottle that's been bottled by someone else and not knowing what exactly is inside and how "clean" it might be. Even if it is going to be going to friends, family, co-workers I think this will make it less "sketchy".

Can anyone provide any guidance as to how to lay these out on paper to print? I made it in GIMP so the label itself is 5"x7" which is 3000 pixels by 1800 or something like that? Do I just make a new GIMP image at 8.5"x11" and paste them on there? Will edges get cut off?

arnobg said:

I made it in GIMP so the label itself is 5"x7" which is 3000 pixels by 1800 or something like that? Do I just make a new GIMP image at 8.5"x11" and paste them on there? Will edges get cut off?

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I wouldn't over complicate it. Just copy/paste the labels into an MS Word document at whatever size you think is best and cut them out. No reason to stress or do something expensive. Printing them like that, cutting them out and using a cheap glue stick to put them on can yield perfectly fine results.



That is how I did my first label. Friends got a kick out of it and it cost me nothing but $1 for a gluestick and maybe half hour of cutting and pasting. They also came off nice and easy. A nicer design than what I came up with for my first one would look even better.

TheCADJockey said:

I wouldn't over complicate it. Just copy/paste the labels into an MS Word document at whatever size you think is best and cut them out. No reason to stress or do something expensive. Printing them like that, cutting them out and using a cheap glue stick to put them on can yield perfectly fine results.

That is how I did my first label. Friends got a kick out of it and it cost me nothing but $1 for a gluestick and maybe half hour of cutting and pasting. They also came off nice and easy. A nicer design than what I came up with for my first one would look even better.

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Thanks for the info. I have looked into the milk option, but not the gluestick. Does the residue come off easy with a b brite bath like normal labels?

arnobg said:

Thanks for the info. I have looked into the milk option, but not the gluestick. Does the residue come off easy with a b brite bath like normal labels?

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Way easy. I didn't even soak the ones I did, they came right off with water and a quick wipe down. Milk, surprisingly does work too... but the gluestick was much too easy. Probably cheaper than milk these days too :cross:

TheCADJockey said:

I wouldn't over complicate it. Just copy/paste the labels into an MS Word document at whatever size you think is best and cut them out. No reason to stress or do something expensive. Printing them like that, cutting them out and using a cheap glue stick to put them on can yield perfectly fine results.

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This is good advice @arnobg. My method is somewhat the same. I get my label print-ready and then email it to my local Office Depot and they laser print it in a 3" x 5" format, 4 images per page for about .57 a sheet (4 labels) on their standard laser stock. Don't use inkjet print or they will run when wet. I bought a small paper cutter; much faster and neater than using scissors.

Glue might be better if they are going to get wet, but I stick mine on with milk. Yup, plain old 2% milk. Unbelievable how well they stick (except if they get really wet). They can be refrigerated or put in a cooler just as long as they don't come in contact with melting ice water. And when it comes to reusing bottles, they come off like a breeze in water with no residue left behind.

Hoppy2bmerry said:

I did include a comment about sediment and that it's alive for the people I'll share some with.

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That's actually an awesome way to put it. I love how the phrase "It's alive" connotes freshness. Sometimes, telling people about sediment feels like you're warning them that the beer is polluted.