***READ BEFORE CONTINUING: This is not an Inkscape tutorial. There are already a ton of these across the web that will explain the software better than I can. This is a guide to developing ideas, layouts, and graphical components of a label.***
What is the first thing you notice when having a beer? You notice either the bottle it comes in or the tap handle it’s being poured from. Both of these are given a face using labels. Labels give your beer an identity. They say “you aren’t just drinking a beer, you’re drinking my masterpiece.” And if your beers don’t turn out great (like some of mine), they still leave the drinker with something to remember. Fortunately, label designing doesn’t have to be difficult. You can create professional looking vector labels in Inkscape for free by keeping a couple simple concepts in mind.
For those unfamiliar with Inkscape, it is a free vector drawing program that is available on all your favorite operating systems. However, because it is a vector drawing program, you are somewhat limited in the style of art you will be creating. Vector graphics are good for labels like those of Double Mountain, but not so good for those like Sierra Nevada. So if you’re looking to create something like Sierra Nevada, you can probably stop reading here. Otherwise, let’s press on!
First, the non-graphical side of things. If you’ve ever said something like “I’m terrible at graphic design, so I can’t make labels,” stop saying this at once. I want you to read this article without any predispositions about your abilities. Start with a clean slate; after all, you’re only going to be as bad as you say you are. Second, come up with an interesting theme or idea. I highly recommend choosing something that you are passionate about, maybe other than beer. That way you are always inspired to do your best designs and can draw on your knowledge of this subject. In this article, I will be sharing my design process for one label in a series of single hop pale ales that I did using space named hops. As someone who is very interested in astronomy, I was consistently motivated to capture the essence of the intergalactic in my design.
A simple, but cohesive color palette is a great first step to an amazing label
Now that we have a good attitude and a good theme, lets select a primary color scheme. Having too many colors is an easy way to make a label hard to read or follow. That’s why I suggest you select three colors that will occupy the majority of your label. Sometimes colors can immediately jump to mind based on your theme, but other times you may struggle to find three that work well together. This is where google is your best friend. Image search your theme and see what other people have used as colors. When I did this for space, (by searching for things like “space graphics” or “retro space posters”) I eventually landed on the following three colors:
And don’t be afraid to use a color wheel, like Adobe Color (a free in-browser color palette selector), to find the best colors that complement one another. Long story short, use the internet as much as you can. Also, remember that if you are brewing something seasonal, colors can easily convey that as well. Summer beers generally have a lighter color scheme including blues and yellows, while winter beers are darker and feature colors such as maroons and greens.
The Decotech font was great for my theme.
With a good color palette selected, the next step is to find that perfect font. The worst place to find a beer label font is in your computer’s default library. I strongly encourage you to branch out and find something online. Dafont.com offers a vast library of fonts ranging from Retro to Medieval. I have yet to find a font that isn’t free, and installation of fonts is incredibly simple (google it if you’re unfamiliar with the process). You can even type the string of text you want to see while you search. Search for 3-5 fonts that fit your theme and that you find personally appealing. When selecting fonts, try to find one "display font", which can be big, bold, ostentatious, swirly, weird, etc., and one font that is better suited for a paragraph. Download and install them so you can test all of them in your label. I found a font called Decotech that happens to perfectly fit my space theme:
I found this image to use for inspiration of my design.
Now that you have a theme, colors, and fonts we can finally start creating the label. Again, you’re going to want to consult image search here. However, please be careful with the use of copyrighted images. While we may only be creating the labels for our own use, not commercial use, it's still someone else's image that they have taken the time to create and post. Anyway, I will be sharing the design for my “Challenger” label. While widely known for its tragic explosion after takeoff, Challenger also had nine successful launches. As such, I wanted my label to show a rocket taking off into space. That means I needed a rocket image, smoke, and some planets, stars, etc. Google helped me find simple graphics of these things that I ended up tracing and tweaking a little in Inkscape using the Bezier curve tool. Once your outline is drawn you can select anchor points to move or modify curves. I repeated this process with the smoke and a little hop graphic I found and turned into a planet.
Create depth by using opacity settings.
To give the label a little depth I copied the smoke and layered it behind two more times while lowering the opacity. I modified the Bezier curves slightly on each layer to create some variety in the smoke's appearance like this:
Now I have all of the major graphical components of the label drawn out. Finally, let’s place them in a 3.75” x 4.25” rectangle. Knowing that the dark blue in my color palette would be the sky, I filled the rectangle with it. I then dragged the smoke to the bottom and aligned it with the boundaries of the rectangle.
The Basic Label. Now I just need to touch it up.
I placed the rocket slightly above and tentatively put the hop planet off to the side. Now type out all the text you want and apply your font choices. I would stick with using only one display font, and one simpler font on a label as it can get distracting or hard to read otherwise. Loosely place the text on your label. Now keep moving things around until you find a layout that is satisfying and effective. One thing I would watch out for is paragraphs of text. I know it can be tempting to tell the story of the beer, but blocks of text take up a lot of space that could be used to show an image. Labels are visual and can quickly become overwhelmed by text. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words! Here is the layout I ended up liking for my label:
To finish it off, I grabbed the spray paint tool and added some different sized stars to the sky. I then slapped my logo on (which I modified the colors on to fit this theme) and called it good! Here is the final label:
One finished label, ready for beer.
I think label making can appear as a daunting task because a lot of commercial breweries use complex graphics and images. But remember, they have graphic designers that are paid to make labels for them. You are just a solo homebrewer. You have the DIY ingenuity to make beer. You can do labels, too! I had no graphic design experience when I started with labels. Always remember to access the internet’s wealth of resources (tutorials, images, fonts) and create something that appeals to you. It is your beer after all. Also realize that the quality of your label is usually directly proportional to the amount of time you put into it. I spend around 3-4 hours per label from initial research to final form. However, using the tools outlined in this article, you should be able to get from blank canvas to beer label in a reasonable amount of time. Most of all, don’t settle on something you’re moderately happy with just to have a label. Strive to create the best label you can no matter what! Don't you do the same for your beer?
All of the finished labels in my series.
What is the first thing you notice when having a beer? You notice either the bottle it comes in or the tap handle it’s being poured from. Both of these are given a face using labels. Labels give your beer an identity. They say “you aren’t just drinking a beer, you’re drinking my masterpiece.” And if your beers don’t turn out great (like some of mine), they still leave the drinker with something to remember. Fortunately, label designing doesn’t have to be difficult. You can create professional looking vector labels in Inkscape for free by keeping a couple simple concepts in mind.
For those unfamiliar with Inkscape, it is a free vector drawing program that is available on all your favorite operating systems. However, because it is a vector drawing program, you are somewhat limited in the style of art you will be creating. Vector graphics are good for labels like those of Double Mountain, but not so good for those like Sierra Nevada. So if you’re looking to create something like Sierra Nevada, you can probably stop reading here. Otherwise, let’s press on!
Removing Preconceptions and Self Judgements
First, the non-graphical side of things. If you’ve ever said something like “I’m terrible at graphic design, so I can’t make labels,” stop saying this at once. I want you to read this article without any predispositions about your abilities. Start with a clean slate; after all, you’re only going to be as bad as you say you are. Second, come up with an interesting theme or idea. I highly recommend choosing something that you are passionate about, maybe other than beer. That way you are always inspired to do your best designs and can draw on your knowledge of this subject. In this article, I will be sharing my design process for one label in a series of single hop pale ales that I did using space named hops. As someone who is very interested in astronomy, I was consistently motivated to capture the essence of the intergalactic in my design.
A simple, but cohesive color palette is a great first step to an amazing labelNow that we have a good attitude and a good theme, lets select a primary color scheme. Having too many colors is an easy way to make a label hard to read or follow. That’s why I suggest you select three colors that will occupy the majority of your label. Sometimes colors can immediately jump to mind based on your theme, but other times you may struggle to find three that work well together. This is where google is your best friend. Image search your theme and see what other people have used as colors. When I did this for space, (by searching for things like “space graphics” or “retro space posters”) I eventually landed on the following three colors:
And don’t be afraid to use a color wheel, like Adobe Color (a free in-browser color palette selector), to find the best colors that complement one another. Long story short, use the internet as much as you can. Also, remember that if you are brewing something seasonal, colors can easily convey that as well. Summer beers generally have a lighter color scheme including blues and yellows, while winter beers are darker and feature colors such as maroons and greens.
The Decotech font was great for my theme.With a good color palette selected, the next step is to find that perfect font. The worst place to find a beer label font is in your computer’s default library. I strongly encourage you to branch out and find something online. Dafont.com offers a vast library of fonts ranging from Retro to Medieval. I have yet to find a font that isn’t free, and installation of fonts is incredibly simple (google it if you’re unfamiliar with the process). You can even type the string of text you want to see while you search. Search for 3-5 fonts that fit your theme and that you find personally appealing. When selecting fonts, try to find one "display font", which can be big, bold, ostentatious, swirly, weird, etc., and one font that is better suited for a paragraph. Download and install them so you can test all of them in your label. I found a font called Decotech that happens to perfectly fit my space theme:
Designing Your Label
I found this image to use for inspiration of my design.Now that you have a theme, colors, and fonts we can finally start creating the label. Again, you’re going to want to consult image search here. However, please be careful with the use of copyrighted images. While we may only be creating the labels for our own use, not commercial use, it's still someone else's image that they have taken the time to create and post. Anyway, I will be sharing the design for my “Challenger” label. While widely known for its tragic explosion after takeoff, Challenger also had nine successful launches. As such, I wanted my label to show a rocket taking off into space. That means I needed a rocket image, smoke, and some planets, stars, etc. Google helped me find simple graphics of these things that I ended up tracing and tweaking a little in Inkscape using the Bezier curve tool. Once your outline is drawn you can select anchor points to move or modify curves. I repeated this process with the smoke and a little hop graphic I found and turned into a planet.
Create depth by using opacity settings.To give the label a little depth I copied the smoke and layered it behind two more times while lowering the opacity. I modified the Bezier curves slightly on each layer to create some variety in the smoke's appearance like this:
Now I have all of the major graphical components of the label drawn out. Finally, let’s place them in a 3.75” x 4.25” rectangle. Knowing that the dark blue in my color palette would be the sky, I filled the rectangle with it. I then dragged the smoke to the bottom and aligned it with the boundaries of the rectangle.
The Basic Label. Now I just need to touch it up.I placed the rocket slightly above and tentatively put the hop planet off to the side. Now type out all the text you want and apply your font choices. I would stick with using only one display font, and one simpler font on a label as it can get distracting or hard to read otherwise. Loosely place the text on your label. Now keep moving things around until you find a layout that is satisfying and effective. One thing I would watch out for is paragraphs of text. I know it can be tempting to tell the story of the beer, but blocks of text take up a lot of space that could be used to show an image. Labels are visual and can quickly become overwhelmed by text. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words! Here is the layout I ended up liking for my label:
Finishing Touches, and Final Considerations
To finish it off, I grabbed the spray paint tool and added some different sized stars to the sky. I then slapped my logo on (which I modified the colors on to fit this theme) and called it good! Here is the final label:
One finished label, ready for beer.I think label making can appear as a daunting task because a lot of commercial breweries use complex graphics and images. But remember, they have graphic designers that are paid to make labels for them. You are just a solo homebrewer. You have the DIY ingenuity to make beer. You can do labels, too! I had no graphic design experience when I started with labels. Always remember to access the internet’s wealth of resources (tutorials, images, fonts) and create something that appeals to you. It is your beer after all. Also realize that the quality of your label is usually directly proportional to the amount of time you put into it. I spend around 3-4 hours per label from initial research to final form. However, using the tools outlined in this article, you should be able to get from blank canvas to beer label in a reasonable amount of time. Most of all, don’t settle on something you’re moderately happy with just to have a label. Strive to create the best label you can no matter what! Don't you do the same for your beer?
All of the finished labels in my series. 
