O'Maolagain's!

[cabot]

Onto my fourth batch now, and decided it's time for me to hop on the bandwagon and come up with a name/label for my "brewery" Any excuse to geek out with brewing more than I already have is a-ok with me.

It turned out that coming up with a name was harder than I thought. And then it came to me, in a drunken stupor (ok...so I had a cold and it was alkaseltzer...but I'm counting it). My last name is Milligan. My family is Irish/Scottish. I started researching the roots of my name and traced it back to the gaelic O'Maolagain. They were originally from County Donegal in Ireland and County Dumfries in Scotland. Good enough for me! I think it's a great theme, and my dad, who is way into geneology will appreciate the thought.

Next task was to come up with a label design. I currently have a pumpkin spice ale bottled, and I have an irish red fermenting. I want to make a label that I can use for all my beers, changing a few elements for each. To stick to the theme, I'm calling my pumpkin ale "Wee Bit O'pumpkin" and the Irish red will become "Donegal Red".

And now for the main event..after 2 hours of meddling, this is what I've come up with for the label (still have to do the neckers) What do you folks think? The irish woodcarved head was a stock image from istockphoto. You'll see the watermark still, as I haven't yet purchased it. I made the design with the low-res image and will go back and purchase the high-res before printing.

 

[Kilgore_Trout]

My first thought was "holy crap did you draw that?".

Very nice label, the text fits it really well, looks nice.

 

[Brooklyn-Brewtality]

I really like that. It all fits together very well, and is very versatile.

 

[Bob]

Nicely done! Once you get the hi-res leprechaun, you'll be set!

I could only pick one nit: it's spelled "karaoke".



Bob

 

[jmulligan]

Awesome label! My last name is Mulligan, so we've got the same roots! Hope your pumpkin ale comes out well.

 

[cabot]

Thanks for the input guys! And BobNQ3X, touche`, thanks for the heads-up you are very right. I'll fix that, that would have looked foolish

Right on jmulligan! Thanks man!

 

[flyangler18]

Right on jmulligan! Thanks man!

That's ma'am

 

[cabot]

Oh geeze I'm stepping in it left and right now. I apologize Ma'am Thanks just the same however!

 

[cabot]

Updated/Final labels. Made a few different variations to see how it would work. What do you folks think? Easy enough to read/etc?

and

and

 

[Brooklyn-Brewtality]

the different backgrounds for different brews look great!

2 things:
1) you still need to fix karaoke
2) "O'Maolagain" on the top, now that I am really looking, seems very heavily weighted to the left because of the caps. I would try an all lower case, an all upper case, and an "O'MaolagaiN" versions to see if that helps.

 

[jmulligan]

I would try an all lower case, an all upper case, and an "O'MaolagaiN" versions to see if that helps.

+1 Try to get a little more balance up top with the text.

Labels look fantastic, very slick and professional. Great job!

 

[cabot]

Beserker, thanks for the push there, I start getting focused on something and seemingly forget everything else. I fixed Kar'A'oke now on all of em, just refresh the images

Good eye, you're right about the left-heavyness. That was by design. It may not be for everyone but I like the little bit of character it lends. So as not to be a sore sport, I did try your suggestions, and I even tried skewing the existing title to make the right side taller and even it out. After doing this, I still preferred the way I have it now. I do appreciate the comments/critique though so thank you.

 

[cabot]

I've been getting anxious to see what my labels are going to look like on the bottles! I've ordered the blank labels but they haven't come in yet *grumble and groan*, so I put my OCD to good use!

 

[Bob]

Sweet! Looking really, really good!

Bob

 

[Token]

That is frickin' awesome!!!!!! oh crap, I sound like an 18-year-old! But it really is awesome!

 

[Thwizzit]

Not to nitpick but in your Brewmaster's Warning you spelled 'recommended' with two "C's" instead of one.

 

[cabot]

The nitpicks are why I posted here! Thanks Thwizzit, I would have never caught that!

And thanks for the comments! I've been giving some of the beer out and everyone smiles at the label, and that's what makes it fun!

 

[IrregularPulse]

Looks very nice. only thing I don't LOVE are teh 3 lions on the neck label. Seems to crowded. Maybe drop the crests, and just throw an Est. Date below the name? just personal preference.

 

[cabot]

IrregularPulse, you're not the first one I've heard that from. I originally stuck to my guns, as the three lions are directly off my family crest. Since that image above was created I have made them smaller, to make them less in your face, but I am starting to lean now towards removing them all together.

 

[warboss100]

cabot what program are you using to make these labels? and they look 100% better on the bottles aswell as a photo

 

[cabot]

Thanks warboss, and I used Adobe Photoshop to create my labels.

 

[brauhausjoe]

Just curious, what size is the label? Looks great!

 

[cabot]

These labels are at 150DPI....which was my mistake that I didn't catch until I was already almost done with them. I will recreate them when I get the time at 300DPI.

They are made from a sizing template downloaded from neato.com. That is where I bought the beer labels (design your label, feed these label blanks into a laser printer...peel and stick) The main part of the label is 3x3 inches roughly. The necker is about 3x1

In the future, I believe I'll change the size up a bit, make them wider, print them on plain glossy paper, cut them and stick them with milk as was suggested on this forum.

The neato labels are cool, but some of them are coming off when the bottles are removed from the fridge and liquid condenses on them. It is also a bit expensive to keep buying the peel and stick labels.