04 June 2018
By Nicholas Walker
Father’s Day is approaching sooner than you think, on the 17th June 2018, and so I thought - let’s kick this blogging thing off with a lovely post on how to make custom labels and some of the biggest mistakes people make when designing labels.
More than just socks for dad please.
Dad’s are difficult when it comes to present idea’s; be it Father’s Day, Birthdays, Christmas or any other gifting opportunities. “Generally” speaking (in case I get labelled a chauvinist) Dad’s are the providers for the family and naturally provide everything for themselves that they might need. So until now, that has left us with no original way to spoil dad and we end up just getting him clothes.
Custom labelled craft beer – the gift for our heroes.
All dad’s love beer – fact. One way you can make your dad feel special, thought of and like the super hero he is, is to get him some custom labelled, award winning beer. Think about it, what would be cooler and more thoughtful than writing a nice message or even putting a cheesy photo of the two of you on the label of a beer for your dad?
But I don’t have a creative bone in my body.
No problem, there are some templates on the Spilhaus Brewery website that you can use and just change the wording to write your own special message. Alternatively, if you want to be more creative and insert writing over a picture or design a label of your own, there is an amazing website called Canva. It is as simple as cracking open a cold one and as easy as ordering an Uber.
The minimum order is a 6 pack? That’s crazy.
Once you have designed your own label on Canva, Illustrator or Paint for you creative geniuses out there, simply head over to Build a Custom Label on the Spilhaus Brewery website, upload your image and order however many 6 packs you want. The labels will get printed, beers labelled, boxed and delivered to you within a week. Currently delivery is only within the greater Cape Town area, however we hope to extend this to a nationwide service shortly.
GET SPILHAUS BREWERY CUSTOM LABELLED BEER
So now you have decided you want to go ahead and design a custom label, but watch out for these 5 common mistakes I have noticed.
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Know the size of the label.
Note that custom labels should be roughly 5:4 (width:height) in ratio or 104 x 85 mm in size when uploaded. This is very important because you can design the most beautiful portrait label, but it just won’t fit on our beer bottles. You will either end up with a bunch of awkward white space on the label or a portion of the design will be cut off.
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Please use a high resolution photo.
If you are using a photo taken with a phone, I hope it is not the Nokia 3310 - did that even have a camera? Jokes aside please use a quality phone. iPhone 5 and more recent as well as any of the other recent smartphones should do the trick. If you just can’t get a good enough quality picture, consider making it black and white, or blurring it further as an effect. Furthermore, try putting some text on top of the picture, so that the text will be of good quality print and people will see that you intentionally blurred the photo.
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Know the application of the label.
These labels are going to be applied to beer bottles, so when designing it know that it should be centered and the text justified. You will see the middle of the label - front on, and the sides of the label will only be fully visible if you turn the beer slightly.
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Use contrasting colours – especially with text.
I have seen so many labels where people have used black text over a dark section of an image or design and it is unreadable. Make sure you use a white or light coloured text over a dark section and visa versa. This will make that important message pop out, rather than getting lost.
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Bigger is better with the size of your text.
A lot of people get this one wrong and make the text too small. Old people can’t read small things and if you are buying these beers for you dad, he is most likely old. For those of you more technical designers, try stick to 5-6pts as the smallest options.
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| Small supporting text | Bigger supporting text |
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Less is more.
Especially when it comes to those of us who are less creative, it is easy enough to pull off a simple label design and look like a pro. Keep it simple and it should look good or add in a rustic background if you think there isn’t enough to the label.
There you have it, my first blog, a great gift for dad on Father’s Day and some basic guidelines on how to design awesome looking beer labels.