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Yesterday I was reading on Birragenda the impressions of Maurizio Maestrelli about Italia Beer Festival of the last week. Aside from considerations about the event, I was caught – and reading the comments I was not the only – on a brief digression on the labels of new born brewery Toccalmatto:

To my taste, are among the most beautiful and funny appeared in public for a long time now. Congratulations indeed to the whole team!

Watching at them, you can only agree: the graphics like modern cartoon style is very pleasant and gives the beer a strong personality, distinguishing them safely from competition.

Reading these lines I have to reflect on the importance of a logo or of a brand style, issue on which my studies returned countless times and that in reality can weigh considerably, decreeing the launch of a product or slowing down well beyond its demerits.Fortunately, we talk about beer and, ultimately, is the content inside the bottle that makes a difference, but it is obvious that the image – even if only limited to a label – still plays a major role.

In this regard I ask you: what are your favorite labels? It ‘a question on which for example an old thread appeared months ago on RateBeer forum, and for which the answers were very varied. On that thread, however, there was an element that bound the different views: often the preferred labels are based on drawings or illustrations, which may include those of Brasserie à Vapeur. This Belgian producer is famous for labels created by Louis-Michel Carpentier, who often have as subject a pig.

Personally one of my favorite are the labels of De Dolle, particularly that of Stille Nacht (here in this post). Or I find very amusing the labels from the American Rogue, since almost they present a variation on a common theme: the picture of a man (or a woman) designed with beer in the right hand. Even in these cases we are dealing with illustrations, as to admit that the labels that attract us are the most fun and frivolous.

To stay in Italy, I find labels from Baladin very characterized, funny those from Barley, very original the early ones from Birra del Borgo. But in my opinion, here in Italy we hardly find really good creative and capable of raising a beer visually from the rest of the competition: maybe because of the little habit to invest in communication, maybe because the inclination to look to the world of wine, which often results in a ‘excessive’ seriousness’ in graphic choices.

Finally I return to the previous question: what are your favorite labels? Even in your case the preference lies with illustrations or drawings, or prefer the more discreet and elegant choices?