Do Judge A Beer By Its Cover And How It Is Designed

Taylor Hughes
Topic Design
Published in
2 min readApr 24, 2017

Who doesn’t love craft beer? Its fan base continues to grow year after year, and so does the supply, with the United States reaching over 5,000 craft breweries in 2016. In this ever growing market, a successful beer has to stand out on the shelf. I created .38 IPA, what I imagined as a hoppy pale ale, as a portfolio project at the School of Advertising Art. Although this beer is fictional, its design makes me hope I’ll someday see it on the shelf!

Closeup of .38 IPA Beer Label Design.

Revolver Brewing Company would produce a portfolio of craft beers, including the .38 IPA. The name of each beer would be a different bullet size. For example, 44 Mag Stout, 10mm Auto Lager, etc. The carrying cases would look like the cylinder of the revolver; every six pack would be in a round carrying case instead of a traditional six pack.

The thinking behind creating an impactful brand

I wanted this brand to highlight the qualities of a revolver gun; strong, dependable and one of a kind. For strength, I show the bullet ripping through the name of the beer. To show the gun’s extreme reliability, I created the tagline, “the beer you can depend on.” I chose to design a stamp style logo for Revolver Brewing that resembles the back of a bullet to match the impactfulness of the brand.

I often see well-written stories on the back of beers that tell the consumer a bit of history about what they are drinking. I thought this would be a fun, engaging way to talk about the beer. I wrote .38 IPAs description to be full of gun puns, but also to provide an idea of what it tastes like.

This project has received a Merit Award for the 2016 Creative Best Competition and a Bronze Award for the 2017 ADDY/Hermes Award Competition.

Stay tuned for design add-ons and brand elements. My next goal is to complete the cylindrical six pack carrying case, as long as a few more labels.

Originally Posted on Topic Design

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Taylor Hughes
Topic Design

I am a graphic designer at Topic Design. My main focus is graphic design, but I enjoy web design and development, photography, and marketing.