§61 “Good Beer” as a Signal of Virtue

Alongside the proliferation of brewers, flavours, styles, hops, and processes of fermentation, the ‘craft beer movement’ has taken the art of labelling products into a whole new terrain. Despite being rooted somewhere in the usual need to differentiate one’s product from an increasingly crowded market, the typography, tropes, colours and motifs that adorn craft beer tins suggest we are witnessing the emergence of a genre sui generis of product design and illustration.

And yet, in J.G. Ballard’s Kingdom Come (2006), the ‘ad man’ protagonist claims beer as one of his profession’s successes. Customers are loyal to their brand of beer despite the generic fizz they swill having little to differentiate it from its competitors besides its branding. This cannot be said of craft beer, as its evolution finds it increasingly placed in a culture of tasting notes, connoisseurship and meal pairings (once the reserve of wine). Many tins are increasingly treated as works of art, with limited edition blends and brewer collaborations with artists being as frequent as the changes in their labels.

This would suggest that the expansive onus placed on a label’s design — which often sees breweries collaborating, commissioning or employing ‘artists in residence’ — is the mark of something else entirely. If the flavour speaks for itself why go to all the effort?

First, we must understand that ‘beer’ as a commodity is now at the forefront of the broader trend in craft/artisanal revivalism, which revises consumption habits and practices around curation and discernment rather than mere acquisition. This renders the discerning consumer as a virtuous aficionado (i.e., hipster) not only performing how cultivated they are, but in doing so, their inherent goodness. As Hunter S. Thompson* espoused , “good people drink good beer”.

/Pete WattAdvertising, Art, Artisanal, Ballard, Beer, Collaboration

* N.B., Hunter’s own gonzo artist-in-residence’s work adorns the bottles of Flying Dog brewery.

Originally published at anowmedia.com on September 21, 2018.