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Craft beers require witty names and equally clever labels. When it comes to melding the two, local breweries say there are plenty of factors involved, from the beer’s ingredients to the drive behind brewing the particular style of beer to the brewer’s original inspiration.
The Virginia Beer Company starts with a beer style and then works into a name and label concept. A shared document with hundreds of potential names is maintained so every brewery
employee can contribute ideas. “Sometimes someone comes up with a great name or label concept which immediately gets added to the production calendar,” says co-founder Chris Smith. “We need to solicit ideas from everyone—even friends of the brewery—because naming over 100 beers per year gets challenging.”
Labels are designed by graphic designer Matt Leech to convey something about the product, while also showing off the brewery’s creative side and its people. Favorite shows and music are popular themes, while labels on their charitable beers promote the mission of local nonprofits. “We want people to look at the label and think about the overall concept and purpose of the beer, not just the liquid inside,” Smith explains. “My favorite part of label design is sneaking in beers about our people and customers.” Operations Manager Luci Legaspi’s high school basketball nickname inspired “Lights Out Luci,” while “It’s Tillar Time” spotlights brewery regular Don Tillar.
At Old Rappahannock Brewing Co. in Warsaw, naming and branding start with a random idea or event that snowballs into a concept that’s then shared with a few creative minds for fine-tuning. Anyone can be involved in the creative process. “It could be an idea from a staff member, a patron or even one of my kids,” says owner Andy Beale. “The decision to move forward with a concept is made if and when the concept lines up well with our branding and marketing strategy. That decision is made at the top.”
Label design starts in-house before being turned over to one of the graphic artists they work with. “The goal with label design is to find a fun and interesting topic people are drawn to, or to pay tribute to a person, place or thing with meaning to us and the consumer,” Beale explains. “We like the idea of paying tribute to and promoting the Northern Neck.” Currently being designed are Warsaw Wit, Deadrise IPA and NNK Pale Ale.
Beer naming is also a group effort at Precarious Beer Project. “We’ll usually bounce ideas back and forth off of each other,” says Director of Brewing Operations Julie Tridente. “We like to get other staff involved in the process as well and they’ve come up with some pretty awesome names, too. When we all like it, it gets approved.”
Once a name is chosen, label creation is assigned. “One of the owners here is pretty savvy about design,” Tridente explains. “We’ve also used local graphic design artists, as well as an art company in the past.” Although there are no guidelines beyond the mandatory elements that must legally be stated, Precarious links the artwork to the name and tries to have fun with it. “We would never want our artwork to be upsetting or offensive, so we do our best to be cognizant of that when creating a label,” she says, emphasizing that the goal is to make their labels, space and brand as a whole inclusive to all. “Our hope is to invoke happiness and ultimately provide artwork that’s visually appealing,” Tridente says. “If we get a laugh out of people, all the better.”
At That Damn Mary Brewing Company, owner and Head Brewer M.J. Anderson gets the ball rolling with a suggestion that’s then run past the sales team. Traditionally if the brewer can explain the name’s genesis and the marketing team feels they can run with it, the name sticks. “A good example is our wheat beer named ‘Glooty Call,’ an easy drinking beer made with wheat, which is nothing but gluten,” Anderson says. “I wanted a fun name that said this is beer you can hang out drinking to have a great time.”
Although Irvington artist Christian Johnson designed the brewery’s first cans, Bryn Leichty has since taken over, creating labels to catch people’s eye and prompt a purchase. “When people purchase a beer for the first time and like it, they become return customers. That’s how a brewery survives,” Anderson explains. “When you’re a new brewery on the block it’s hard to get noticed at first so that’s what our labels are designed to do.” Of the best marriage of name and label among their beers, Anderson doesn’t hesitate: “Funk Me Pumps Pumpkin Ale.”
And if that doesn’t make you laugh, craft beer may not be your thing.
Virginia Beer Company I 401 2nd Street, Williamsburg I 757-378-2903 I virginiabeerco.com
Old Rappahannock Brewing Company I 130 Main Street, Warsaw I 804-250-2021 I oldrapp.com
Precarious Beer Project I 110 South Henry Street, Williamsburg I 757-808-5104 I precariousbeer.com
That Damn Mary Brewing Company I 5036-B George Washington Memorial Highway, Hayes I 804-792-5500 I thatdamnmary.com