Strawberry Wheat label critique.

So I threw together this label, please give me your feedback, any constructive criticism is welcome.

EDIT: #3(7/30/10)
Here is the final outcome from this label design, I don't think I'm gonna fuss with it any more since I am satisfied with the label in its current state. Thank you all for your helpful and constructive criticisms, feel free to continue to critique this label and I can incorporate those ideas into my next design.



EDIT: #1


EDIT: #2
Per the suggestions I've edited the label. I have made it approximately 5"x3", as you can see I paragraphed the description content, and made a sidebar with a border, as well as moved the sunburst within the description sidebar.

So what do you think?



Please keep the critique coming!

The label is more than worthy. How's the beer?

Awesome! Do all your labels have the flame thing around the vital stats? if it were in plain print, it would leave the eye on the coolness of the strawberry wheat reef thingy... really cool. The description makes my mouth water!

Brewham said:

The label is more than worthy. How's the beer?

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LOL, I have yet to brew it, my brewday has been put on hold for 2 weekends now. I had to do something brewing related!

DarkNoonBrewer said:

Awesome! Do all your labels have the flame thing around the vital stats? if it were in plain print, it would leave the eye on the coolness of the strawberry wheat reef thingy... really cool. The description makes my mouth water!

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This is the first label I have put together in a while. Most of my labels have been corny and funny like the "What you talkin' bout Willis" a Gary COleman Tribute Ale (Belgian Dark Strong). I thought I'd try to put a label together that would actually make someone look at it and say, now that's a neat label.

As for the flaming sun around the vitals, that was a last minute addition because that side of the label looked lonely with only plain print there.

I hope to brew this next weekend, it will be a 10 gallon batch because I have failed to brew the wife omething she wants in a while. She asked for a Strawberry beer, similar to what a nearby brewpub offers seasonally dubbed Strawberry Lightning. To me the brewpub's beer has a artificial flavor to it, the may very well use extract for flavoring, I have always use real fruit in my fruit beers, and they just seem to taste so much better. It gives them a tartness that extract lacks.

Thanks for the comments!

Cheers!

The label is great; all the colors work very well together. My only 2 suggestions (actually just things to think about) would be moving the block of text over to the right a little. It's really jammed in the corner and might look more comfortable and pleasing to the eye if it had a little space around it and giving the label as a whole a bit of a frame. The only other thing would be darkening the shadow of the broken glass brewery...make it a bit more contrasty. It's extremely subtle...which is great if that's what you're going for.

Great job and good luck getting the beer actually brewing!

Noontime said:

My only 2 suggestions (actually just things to think about) would be moving the block of text over to the right a little. It's really jammed in the corner and might look more comfortable and pleasing to the eye if it had a little space around it and giving the label as a whole a bit of a frame.

Great job and good luck getting the beer actually brewing!

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Thanks for the positive feedback!

Exactly which block of text are you speaking of...the title, the description, or the vitals (lower right hand corner)?

Please respond, as I am truly intrestd in your critique!

Cheers!

The description text in the lower left is what I was referring to. Every other componant of the design seems to be floating on the sunny background while that block of text seems to be achored in the corner. There may be no other way of doing it...just an observation; to me being that close to the edge kind of attaches it to the rectangular boundary of the label instead of being something inside the boundary...if that makes any sense. Again...just a subtle observasion.

This label really communicates "refreshing!"

That's very nice! The ray-burst effect is pretty similar to something I'm working on now.

I know you said to ignore the typo, but there are actually 2 so I figured I'd make sure you got a chance to fix 'em both before you print these. "acrisp" should be 2 words, "maount" should be "amount".

SumnerH said:

That's very nice! The ray-burst effect is pretty similar to something I'm working on now.

I know you said to ignore the typo, but there are actually 2 so I figured I'd make sure you got a chance to fix 'em both before you print these. "acrisp" should be 2 words, "maount" should be "amount".

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Thanks for pointing those out, I totally missed the "amount" until my wife pointed it out, I will update the picture and make a slight change to the text that noontime suggested to see if that makes the text more interesting.

Final edit of photo is located in post number one. I made some minor changes per your suggestions. Keep the critique coming!

My first thought is to break up the text on the left into three paragraphs. Right now it reads like a run-on sentence. That burst feels to me like it's sort of floating (as does the side text) and I would like to see them contained a little better.

As it is now, it feels like there are three floating objects, the main logo, the burst and then the text. You might want to have the text on a solid background or something to separate it. I moved the burst over to the sidebar to give logo more focus but that's something you can play around with.

Thanks for the suggestion Thwizz, I do like the solid background behind the text better, and the paragraphs seperating the text also. One reason I left the text in a single column is I was trying to confine everyhting on the label to 4x3", but I could widen the label to 5x3". I think that would still fit on a beer bottle.

With the actual title and picture moved over, the right side of the image doesn't seem as lonely, another reason I added the sunburst to the right side.

I'll play with it some more and see what everyone thinks of the changes.

Cheers!

Schnitzengiggle said:

Thanks for the suggestion Thwizz, I do like the solid background behind the text better, and the paragraphs seperating the text also. One reason I left the text in a single column is I was trying to confine everyhting on the label to 4x3", but I could widen the label to 5x3". I think that would still fit on a beer bottle.

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You can easily fit a 3.5"x3.5" with a 2"x3.5" back label on a normal 12oz longneck and have plenty of space between the two. If you're not doing back labels, a 6"x3.5" will fit easily--I think a full wrap label (where the ends meet) is close to 7" long.

I like the plain panel on the left, but I'd get rid of the highlight background behind each paragraph--it's too busy looking. I'd either eliminate it entirely (put the text on the dark left panel) or merge the background for the three paragraphs (so it's one rectangle of the highlight background with all 3 paragraphs on it).

SumnerH said:

...or merge the background for the three paragraphs (so it's one rectangle of the highlight background with all 3 paragraphs on it).

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I agree, I planned on removing the drop shadow from the left panel because it looks too busy, I'll probably change the font color too.

Do you mean a cutout of the background with a dropshadow, and the paragrahs on that?

Or just the dropshadow color to lighten the background behind the text on the solid background?

The whole background on the left is a darker color (it looks like a border at the top left corner, or is just the background behind the "Sun" with ABV/IBU info in it).

Then each paragraph has a lighter rectangle behind it, making 3 lighter rectangles (one under each paragraph).

I'd either eliminate those lighter fields or make just one larger rectangle that all 3 paragraphs are on--still keep space between the paragraphs in either case.

Having the dark border between paragraphs is too busy looking to me.

Okay, I've updated, and added another image to post #1, I'm not too sure about the border around the entire box, what do you think?

I was thinking about finding a nice floral frame or making a floral brush to replace the triple line border. I would make it just a slightly different color, or allow it to be the same color to merge with the orange background.

Schnitzengiggle said:

I was trying to confine everything on the label to 4x3

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I didn't make the label wider, it's exactly the same as your original, I just shrunk the width of the word "Strawberry" and made the image of the strawberry slightly larger to fill in the space better so there's not as much empty area on either side of the berry

I noticed that, but it would be a pain in the ass to move the background burst to the right and center the strawberry over it. I would basically have to re-do the entire label.

I'm not opposed to the label being wider, so the 5"x3" label will work fine for my purposes, plus it keeps the main image looking clean and uncluttered.

Any thoughts on the descritption box and borderaround it?

Here is the final outcome from this label design, I don't think I'm gonna fuss with it any more since I am satisfied with the label in its current state.

Thank you all for your helpful and constructive criticisms, feel free to continue to critique this label and I can incorporate those ideas into my next design.

Final revision:



This can also be found and compared to the previous 2 designs in post #1.

Nice!

The only thing you might want to fool around with next time is center justifying the block of text (instead of left). It certainly works this way as well, giving the text the same structure as the box it's in.

It's a great label! It makes me wish I had a strawberry beer to drink RIGHT NOW!