To round off 2021 and season 1 of The craft Brewers' Creative, Jenna is chatting to branding expert and designer of the podcast logo, Brandon Wilson. Find out about what goes into branding your favorite beers and how important the can is to telling the story of a brewery. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The can is the brand's opportunity to sell itself to you. When you go to the store you see so many different choices and you can only go with what it says on the can. They need to tell you not just how the beer tastes, but what their story is. Why should you choose their citrus IPA over the one sitting next to it on the shelf. 
• Changing your can design can be risky, what if the people who usually buy it don't recognize it with a new can. That's why you don't see many staple brands change their look too much. 
• Brandon has a rule of three where he likes to have three strong ideas and pits them off against each other to become a final design. 
• The color scheme of a can should be representative of what's inside. A light summery drink should have light or bright colors whereas a dark stout with rich flavors should have bold and dark and heavy colors. 

BEST MOMENTS

‘I'd rather my favorite beers be designed well and be inspiring' 

‘The basil wasn't for taste, it was for the aroma' 

‘It's an expensive product and you're damn well right they're going to make their packaging feel great'

EPISODE RESOURCES 

https://www.brandonwilsoncreative.com/
https://www.instagram.com/brandonwilsoncreative/
hello@brandonwilsoncreative.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Jenna Steele fell in love with the craft beer industry while studying hospitality at Cornell University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration. In one of her courses, she was able to try countless craft beers, from across the US, in every style. Though the beer was good, the can art stood out. She wanted to know more about how the cans came to be.

Jenna's love for craft beer is primarily due to beers and breweries' creative and visual elements. Got cool can designs? Heck yeah.

After working in finance for a couple of years, Jenna returned to her love of craft beer. She wanted to hear the stories behind can names and designs, brewers' backgrounds, breweries, and hear from label artists themselves. So, she took it upon herself to start The Craft Brewers' Creative under her Craft brand, Beer Can Lover.

On The Craft Brewers' Creative, Jenna interviews brewers, graphic designers, marketing managers, creative directors, owners, and everyone in between about themselves and the beers they bring alive.

You can find Jenna and her craft beer content on Instagram @beercanlover

If you want to contact Jenna, email pod@beercanlover.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on The Craft Brewers' Creative, Jenna is joined by Kirk from Mind The Font, a black owned branding and packaging design agency. Jenna and Kirk got talking about an article titled ‘How Contract Brewing Can Help Minority- and BIPOC-Owned Breweries' so she invited him on the podcast to discuss the article, and some much less serious topics.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• There's a lot of ego, and disagreements, and mansplaining in the craft beer industry. It can make it a little harder to enjoy the beer when people try to impose so many rules.
• Most craft breweries aren't trying to be a huge global thing, they just want to be the beer of their town or their local area.
• All packaging needs to have key points on it. What's the brand? The flavor? The size? And the ABV? The job of the designer is also to give you all the information you need to know without having to turn over the can.
• As a designer, Kirk gets a brief from the company with all the key information about the product, what they want, and who the brand it targeting.
• Your story as a brand is so much more important than your image.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I went to the store and there was like this wall of 300 different beers. It was like a kaleidoscope of color'

‘I'm pretty sure this is orange soda... but I'm not sure'

‘There's not a tonne of rules with making labels, if you understand the core, you can get creative'

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://www.hopculture.com/contract-brewing-minority-bipoc-breweries/

Vslabrand.com

https://www.mindthefont.com/

https://www.instagram.com/mindthefont/

ABOUT THE HOST

Jenna Steele fell in love with the craft beer industry while studying hospitality at Cornell University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration. In one of her courses, she was able to try countless craft beers, from across the US, in every style. Though the beer was good, the can art stood out. She wanted to know more about how the cans came to be.

Jenna's love for craft beer is primarily due to beers and breweries' creative and visual elements. Got cool can designs? Heck yeah.

After working in finance for a couple of years, Jenna returned to her love of craft beer. She wanted to hear the stories behind can names and designs, brewers' backgrounds, breweries, and hear from label artists themselves. So, she took it upon herself to start The Craft Brewers' Creative under her Craft brand, Beer Can Lover.

On The Craft Brewers' Creative, Jenna interviews brewers, graphic designers, marketing managers, creative directors, owners, and everyone in between about themselves and the beers they bring alive.

You can find Jenna and her craft beer content on Instagram @beercanlover

If you want to contact Jenna, email pod@beercanlover.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on The Craft Brewers' Creative, Jenna is joined by Mike from the Craft Beer Bucket List podcast. Find out all about how to market your brewery or taphouse from someone who has been there and done that. Also listen in for Jenna and Mike's opinions on social media, marketing, and what kinds of beer they just can't stand.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• If you're running a brewery, then you have to decide if you want to try to be the big supplier or the local spot where people come down to have a beer.
• You also need to get involved in the community, go to events, support local causes, let people know that you're there and that you are a part of the area. It doesn't matter how good your beer is, if people don't know who you are or where you are then you won't have any customers.
• Having an online presence can be helpful but if you don't do it right then it can do more harm than good.
• The UK kills it with their beer can art.
• Craft beer is getting to the same levels of popularity and recognizability than the big lager brands.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The thing I like about breweries are the people'  

‘Everyone thinks that social media isn't the magical solution, it's not. You have to use it appropriately'

‘Most breweries have a pretty interesting story, it's just making sure people hear it'

EPISODE RESOURCES

https://anchor.fm/craftbeerbucketlist/support

https://www.instagram.com/craftbeerbucketlist/

ABOUT THE HOST

Jenna Steele fell in love with the craft beer industry while studying hospitality at Cornell University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration. In one of her courses, she was able to try countless craft beers, from across the US, in every style. Though the beer was good, the can art stood out. She wanted to know more about how the cans came to be.

Jenna's love for craft beer is primarily due to beers and breweries' creative and visual elements. Got cool can designs? Heck yeah.

After working in finance for a couple of years, Jenna returned to her love of craft beer. She wanted to hear the stories behind can names and designs, brewers' backgrounds, breweries, and hear from label artists themselves. So, she took it upon herself to start The Craft Brewers' Creative under her Craft brand, Beer Can Lover.

On The Craft Brewers' Creative, Jenna interviews brewers, graphic designers, marketing managers, creative directors, owners, and everyone in between about themselves and the beers they bring alive.

You can find Jenna and her craft beer content on Instagram @beercanlover

If you want to contact Jenna, email pod@beercanlover.com

This show was brought to you by Progressive Media

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.