With developing the brand identity for the fictional brewery, July Moon Brewing Co. completed, creating and developing label designs for their line of IPAs was the next step. The designs should not only attract and welcome beer aficionados and newcomers alike but to also be led and inspired by the brewery’s personality and values of being exploratory, passionate and adventurous. Like with July Moon’s branding, the line needed to look and feel approachable and inviting while still presenting itself in a lively and welcoming manner.
July Moon Brewing Co. is a hypothetical upcoming brewery based in the Pacific Northwest. They are a family-owned company with an emphasis on experimenting with flavors and styles of craft beer and an interest in bringing in the more adventurous crowd of their targeted demographic.
“At July Moon Brewing, we’re dedicated to creating artisan beer. Family owned with a passion for pushing boundaries in our brews, our goal is to not only provide beer that tastes great but a drink that’s perfect for any occasion. Whether you're drinking it during a sizzling, hot afternoon or on a cool, breezy night, gazing up at the moon and stars, we offer you an invitation to let us help your love of beer grow.“
-July Moon Brewing Co. Mission Statement
Concepting
When I began brainstorming, I kept several keywords and details in mind. The brand’s personality traits and values along with part of the target demographic’s favorite activities including traveling and being out in the great outdoors. After doing some free writing, I had created through word association a connection with hops and a type of insect called a leafhopper or more colloquially known as hoppers. The pun “hopping into a beer” pieced together for me and that double meaning became an idea I wanted to explore even further.
Editing & Sketching
Since this would ultimately result in a line of IPAs, I had to think about how I could scale beyond the initial idea and thankfully, leafhoppers aren’t the only type of hopper. They belong to a suborder of true bugs with members including but not limited to planthoppers (lanternflies), treehoppers and froghoppers (spittlebugs.) Based on that, I sketched out thumbnails of each can with one hopper as a part of their designs.
Picking and choosing one species for each label was incredibly difficult due to how unique and striking each one already was and trying to narrow my options down to only 4 hoppers. Ultimately, I made my choices based on how well visually these insects looked together as a group and deciding which ones I felt best represented their respective species’ special traits, while being mindful that this may be some customers' first ever introduction to these insects. That said, finding an even blend of easily identifiable and fascinating features felt really important to have.
In addition to the hoppers, I drew added ingredients such as fruits based on the type of host plants these hoppers seem to prefer feeding on. The 4th can ended up as the exception due to the froghoppers feeding mostly on grasses so hops felt appropriate as some can be described as providing a piney, earthy and occasionally, grassy profile. After finishing up the thumbnails, I chose the ones I felt would work best together as a series and from there, created bigger and more refined inked sketches.
Color & Type
Once the inked sketches for the hoppers were finished, I wanted to figure out beforehand what the color palette and typography for each design would be prior to moving onto the final layout and created 4 colored sketches with the brewery’s logo, each beer’s name, class designation, alcohol content by volume and net contents all in place. For each label design, I wanted to keep the hopper’s natural color scheme intact and make the rest of the label’s palette either based on the insects’ own palette with additional colors added or a palette that contrasts well with the hopper using colors based on the ingredients instead.
As for the names and class designations, Skaters by Teguh Pranata of IguhStudio perfectly encapsulated the playful, bold and almost customized look and feel I was searching for. Futura PT Heavy by Paratype provided some needed grounding with its sharp and strong geometric presence for the alcohol by volume and net contents, balancing out the floating elements on the labels.
Final Designs
With each color palette and typographic choice made, everything was ready to move forward in finalizing the labels. Several adjustments were made when compared to the colored roughs such as moving some of the floating fruits and hops away from the brewery’s logo and alcohol /net contents as it became too difficult to read.
Regarding the fruits and hops, I created patterns for each can since they ended up appearing too sparse on the label and added some more breathing space between the patterns and the central illustrations. Making these adjustments helped improve each design individually and together.
Candy Struck
The candy-striped leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea) is a species of leafhopper, which are well known for their bright colors and can come in a myriad of unique patterns adorning their thorax and wings. Like their hopper relatives, they feed on plant sap and can hop out of sight as quickly as they appear. They can be found feeding on one of two of their favorite host plants, blackberry and raspberry bushes.
The name Candy Struck is a pun on one of these hopper’s many common names. Perhaps people who encounter one will be struck by their candy-colored appearance. Together with the addition of blackberries and raspberries, this IPA could be great for anyone’s sweet tooth.
Straw Jaw
The longan lanternfly (Pyrops candelaria), also known as the lantern fly and/or lantern bug, is a species of planthopper with their name deriving from their ability to resemble leaves and plants in their environment. They have a high specialization in mimicry as a means of defense and tend to appear in a multitude of various body shapes and forms. This planthopper’s most prominent feature is the long proboscis sprouting from its face that can be used to dig under tree bark to gain easier access to the sap beneath. Both longan and lychee trees are their typical feeding grounds.
Straw Jaw is named for the lantern fly’s most outstanding feature and doubles as a reference to the needle-like mouth part they use to pierce and suck plant sap. With the longan’s musky sweetness and the lychee’s floral juiciness combined, this makes for tasty, tropical IPA.
Pokey Dokey
The thorn bug (Umbonia crassicornis) is a treehopper and like their relative, the planthopper, their species also engages in camouflage and mimicry via their pronotums a.k.a the first segment of their thorax, which expands into fantastical and ornate shapes that can resemble hats and helmets. Female thorn bugs are the one whose horn comes to a perpendicular thorn-like point while the males’ horn is more blunt and stem-like in comparison. Thorn bugs can be found on ornamental plants and fruit trees but seem to have a preference for woody plants like trees and shrubs.
Pokey Dokey is an affectionate nod to the thorn bug’s greatest asset and how it just looks like something to be poked but probably isn’t advisable. Since they have a love for fruit trees, a blend of tangy tamarinds, sweet oranges and sour limes felt right and could be the perfect to have on a hot, summer night.
Twice Striped
Ending off this series is the two-striped spittlebug (Prosapia bicincta.) They go by the common names froghopper and spittlebug. Their species often gets confused with leafhoppers due to how similar they look to one another but, froghoppers tend to be a little larger in size and stouter compared to them and are described as having a more frog-like appearance. Their other name, spittlebug, comes from the fact that as nymphs, they produce small, foamy masses or spittle, from diluted sap to protect them from predators and provide them with thermal and moisture control. Once they reach adulthood, they no longer produce spittle.
Twice Striped refers to the 2 pairs of distinct yellow stripes going across the froghopper’s black wings. Unlike its relatives, froghoppers prefer to feed on grasses so a west coast style IPA fits as it's well known for its bold hoppy aroma and notes of pine and earth. Perfect for those looking for a drink that is less about sweet and all about bitter and chock full of that hop heavy aroma and flavor people love.
