Help! Label critique, please.

[peachfuzz]

Hi guys! My boyfriend and I have gotten really into brewing beer and cider this year (thanks in part to HomeBrewTalk!) and I thought I would make and give him labels as part of his Christmas present. I need really honest feedback on these (I still have some cleanup and aligning etc. to do, and need to write actual descriptions, so ignore that stuff):

They are supposed to be sort of old-fashioned and the drawings are supposed to have that primitive woodcut character, but I am not a good enough artist to keep a truly consistent style across a series. We both like this simple, old-school look in general, though. Any advice you can give me on tweaking the drawings and type would be much appreciated - more ornamentation? Any one that doesn't fit with the rest? ANY advice is good, I want to get these looking as good as possible with my limited skills before surprising him with them (we're exchanging gifts on Sunday, so at least there's a little time). I like the apple tree best, and think the cherry cider label looks the worst - but I don't know what else to draw or how else to draw it.

I am planning on printing these on a slightly off-white paper that looks a bit aged, like old parchment. I'll put them on with the milk method. Does that seem like it would work, or does anyone have better suggestions?

 

[peachfuzz]

Here are the other three labels, for non-beer things...

 

[IrregularPulse]

I think they look very nice. I like the style. Leads to a nice broad range of labels without being boring.

 

[BuffaloSabresBrewer]

That bee is totally gonna nail that pomegranate.

 

[chefchris]

Those look awesome. He's a lucky guy.

 

[TerryWendel]

Nice. The font really works with it. What is it?

 

[Gregredic]

I think they look really nice...just I think they would look better if you used a different color paper than white. Try to find some khaki (or rustic) color or something. I think they will be killer then.

 

[kornbread]

I think they look really nice...just I think they would look better if you used a different color paper than white. Try to find some khaki (or rustic) color or something. I think they will be killer then.

I was gonna suggest the same thing. I think it needs to look "Older".

I love the concept. That California label is very nice. But, what is that a picture of in the Gingerbread label? Ginger root? I could be because the pic is small but I'm kind of lost on that one.

 

[Wheat King]

yea they look pretty sweet. why not google image search for "parchment" or "old paper" or whatever and just apply the texture in photoshop or gimp or whatever. that way you can make the 'paper' any color you want. that would be super super easy to do

 

[peachfuzz]

Thanks for the nice feedback so far guys. Terry - the font is American Typewriter, with a couple effects (I think Torn Edges and then Accented Edges) applied to give the letters a wobbly printing press look.

I think you all are right about giving them a more aged look; I'm going to look for parchment-like paper to print on. I'd just underlay a cool-looking paper background underneath, but 1) I only have a black and white laser printer, and 2) there are a lot of white lines on top of black that I don't know how to fix/turn transparent in Illustrator. Easier to just print on the right paper, I think. I'll take pictures of them on the bottles - some are going on regular longnecks, some on short necked bottles, and some on these beautiful tall 375mL bottles we got.

In the meantime, if you have any more advice, keep it coming! I reworked the logo, what do you think of this for the top of the labels? Does it just look like a blob (it's a hop leaf)? What would look better?

 

[pedalmedic]

Ithink a parchment paper with and older yellow color would look cool. Aged.

 

[TroubleBrewing]

I think the new logo makes the top of the label look a bit too busy, the old style was imo better. Out of all of them, I like the California Imperial Pale Ale logo best for layout, and the India Pale Ale best for the picture used.

 

[Gregredic]

I have to agree with TroubleBrewing...I like the previous header better. I would say with the right color paper, they are good to go. The ONLY thing I can think to do would be to add more text to the right hand side of the label....which would make it a bit smaller and easier to read. If you can't think of more descriptors to put on there....you could say how it is best served. You know...temp, type of glass, etc.