Labeling Innovations from Weber

Where do I start??

No one ever really thinks about labels (unless you are a label person like me!) Labels exist on products to convey information. Perhaps you have come across labels when shopping that either entice you to buy a product or confuse you about just what it is. Some labels work better than others. It's all in the design.

There isn't one perfect label design that fits everything, but a well-designed label hits several key points:

Clear communication: It effectively conveys the product information, including brand, name, and key features. Think easy-to-read fonts and clear hierarchy in what info is most important.

The primary function of a label is to accurately represent the product it is attached to. It is crucial to clearly convey what the product is, its composition, and the quantity contained within. Imagine the confusion if someone mistook a bottle of blue window cleaner for raspberry fruit punch! It is essential to make it effortless for consumers to identify the product and access any vital information about it.

This becomes even more critical when dealing with chemical or pharmaceutical products. In urgent situations, medical professionals or emergency responders require precise and concise details about the product they are handling.

To address this need, these types of products often utilize specialized extended text labels. These labels provide a comprehensive amount of information readily available alongside the medicine or chemical product.

Visually appealing: Product labels often are used to sell a product from the store shelf. It catches the consumer's eye with a design that reflects the brand personality. This could be bright colors for a playful product or a sleek design for something more sophisticated.

Brands strategically utilize color and design to stand out from their competitors on the store shelf. Consider the iconic associations we make with certain colors and brands - Coca-Cola with red, Tide with orange, and John Deere with green.

Choose a color scheme and style that aligns with your brand identity. Your label can feature vibrant photos or intricate illustrations in a variety of colors. Incorporating innovative label materials like metallic films, fluorescent colors, and tactile laminations can elevate your product's visual appeal and make it unforgettable.

Consumers often make decisions based on visual cues, so make sure your label catches their eye before they commit to a brand.

Choose a font style that is easily legible from afar and incorporate your logo to firmly establish your brand identity. 

Functional: The size and shape of the label have to fit the product and the material has to be appropriate for the environment it will be in (e.g., waterproof for a beverage).

Cutting-edge label materials now encompass freezer-grade media that securely sticks in subzero conditions, specialized laminations resistant to chemicals to preserve label clarity, waterproof BOPP vinyl materials tailored for beverages, and robust durable label materials designed for outdoor or harsh settings.

Here's how these come together:

So now that you have the basics of a label, what else do I need to think about? This is where the artistic design part of the label comes in.

Consider the product: Food carries a distinct emotional resonance compared to, for example, a box of screws. What specific vibe do you aim to evoke with your label's appearance? Should it exude deliciousness or industrial functionality? Will it bring joy or simplify life? How do you want your customers to feel when they see it? Or does their emotional response even matter in the grand scheme of things?

A jar of jam might use a cute, colorful label with a handwritten font, while a bottle of high-end olive oil might have a more minimalist design with a focus on clean lines and earthy tones.Your new beer could embrace a lighthearted and witty persona, while a fresh laundry detergent exudes power and purity.

Think about the target audience: Consider the intended person who will be reading the label: Are you targeting a construction worker who values product reliability and durability, requiring the label to remain intact for an extended period?

Or perhaps a no-nonsense nurse in need of critical dosage information for a new medicine? A label for baby food should be clear, informative, and trustworthy, while a label for a new energy drink might be more edgy and attention-grabbing.

As a typical brewery, you are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways to make your products stand out, whether it's in a retail setting or sold from a tap room cooler. A captivating label that distinguishes you from the competition is key to attracting attention and expanding your customer base. Let's face it, more often than not, a consumer's choice is influenced by the label itself.

While there are many ways to create impressive looking labels, like using metallic papers and exotic label materials, they tend to be expensive. And breweries are always looking to keep their label price at the magic <$0.10/label threshold. Right?

Weber Packaging recently started helping breweries use a simple, economical process to make their labels stand out. It might even get your customers to play with your label and show others.

It’s called Cast & Cure. It’s a cost-effective in-line process that creates a shiny reflective area on your label using UV coating and a specialty film. And it doesn’t really add much to your basic label cost.

The Craft Brewers Conference was cancelled for 2020, but we want to show you what Weber was planning to demonstrate in their booth. 

Every year we look forward to the craft brewing innovations, camaraderie and outstanding good time at the Craft Brewers Conference. Unfortunately, this year the show was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We hope everyone was able to stay home and practice smart social behaviors that allowed everyone to stay healthy in this difficult environment.

But we really wanted to show you some of the things we had planned for our new booth at the CBC show. So Neal Oechsle, our Labeling Products Manager, would like to show you a few things that can improve your craft beer labeling.

Weber can help you improve your craft beer brand by helping you get high-quality labels and economic prices. Craft beer labels need to look unique, setting you apart from the crowd in the busy beverage aisle. And the labels need to be durable, water-resistant and smudge-proof. Weber can print your labels on their digital presses, so small label runs are very economical. We can use a variety of label stocks for special effects and can add foil and embossing to really make your label come alive. 

And our e-commerce site, Go-Label.com, is now offering a selection of custom digitally printed craft beer labels for your brand. We can take your artwork and print beautiful labels on a variety of label materials and protective coatings. These labels come in convenient rolls of 500 labels on 3" cores (also available in larger sizes - call for details).

Our custom-printed labels are perfect for limited runs and special times when you need between 500-5000 labels for your latest project. While Go-Label can supply much larger quantities if needed, that should be handled by one of our labeling experts available at 1.800.843.4242.

For more information on the PL-501, check out our web site.

What was once farmland and an abandoned quarry has become a small piece of paradise in the northwest Chicago suburbs. Wild Onion Brewery is one of Chicago’s first craft breweries of the modern era, firing up their first batch of Paddy Pale Ale in 1996. Family-owned, and located just off Route 14 in Lake Barrington, IL, this small but mighty brewer has seen steady, well-managed growth for over 23 years.

With roots going back to the Kainz family dairy business in Chicago in the early 1900’s, founding brewer Mike Kainz had always been intrigued by family brewing stories. His grandfather and uncles had converted part of their dairy to beer production on the sly during Prohibition to keep thirsty Chicagoans happy in the 1920’s. There were stories of fermenting beer in stainless steel milk tanks and rolling barrels down the alley behind the dairy at night.

As an Economics/French major in college, Mike traveled to France for school and fell in love with the Belgian and German beers. He came home and started home brewing to create beers with more flavor than what was currently available in the USA. He just dabbled in the brewing art, and became quite proficient at it.

“It’s all about the community and how we bring people together through beer,” said co-founder and Master Brewer Deb Loch.

Celebrating their fourth anniversary in business, Deb and co-founder Jill Pavlak have been slowly building their brewery through quality products and local participation. Urban Growler (www.urbangrowlerbrewing.com) was opened in July 2014 when Deb and Jill combined their talents and passion to create outstanding beer, food and a welcoming space for the community.

And their brand tag line says it all: “We’re Beer For You!”

As Minnesota’s first female-owned brewery, they had many challenges getting their vision in place. But with the help of friends, family and even total strangers, Urban Growler became a reality. Their patrons believed in the founders vision and their support helped get one of the hottest new breweries off the ground. Now that spirit is being repaid with a company that is there for the community.

The brewery, located at 2325 Endicott St. in St. Paul, Minnesota, features a warm, welcoming taproom, on-location kitchen and an outdoor beer garden. There are also indoor retail spaces that can be rented for hosting meetings, weddings, and local social gatherings.

But one of the most interesting things about Urban Growler is the building itself. This century-old brick and timber space was once home to the St. Paul Police horse stables back in the late 1800’s. After that tenure, it became a manufacturing facility for wooden skis and hockey sticks (after all, this IS Minnesota) as well as other warehousing in later years. The designers for Urban Growler did an awesome job of resurrecting the true character of the old building while adding a few modern updates for comfort and accessibility.

The brewery is looking to output 2000 barrels this year, up from about 1250 last year. Their flagship brews include traditional beers like their CowBell Cream Ale, Midwest IPA and their De-Lovely Porter. They also brew an interesting Kentucky Uncommon Ale and a “West-Coast-hops-meets-East-Coast-maltiness” Golden Hammer IPA. All Urban Growler flagship beers are lovingly handcrafted in 10-barrel batches under the close supervision of Master Brewer Deb.

But one of the best things about being a small brewery is that you can brew small batches and experiment with limited releases. Last year, Urban Growler brewed over 40 different beers, some as small as half-barrel experiments! Most of these end up in the taproom where their popularity is voted on by their customers’ consumption. The more popular winners then might end up as a seasonal or limited release for distribution in cans.

Lately much of their focus has been on a concept that they call “Plow to Pint®”. They have found that people would rather drink locally and that they appreciate locally sourced products. For this endeavor, Urban Growler uses ingredients harvested from farmers in the area to create unique beers with a distinct twist. Some of the recent favorites include Blueberry Wheat featuring blueberries harvested from a family-owned farm in Princeton, MN, and an Oak Aged Imperial Ale with Frontenac Grapes that used classic oak barrels and Frontenac grapes gown outside Red Wing, MN. They are currently working with the Rainforest Alliance in Guatemala and the University of Minnesota to create a collaboration brew using the sustainable ramon nut. Not your ordinary Stout.

While most of the flagship beers at Urban Growler are filled by a Wild Goose system into preprinted cans bought in bulk, these new small batch creations are getting canned and labeled using pressure-sensitive custom-designed labels. This allows the brewery to be more flexibile while doing a small batch economically and using eye-catching designs for their new brews.

Urban Growler has been canning approximately 150 cases of their small batch seasonals every few months. But because of their success, they are now looking to ramp things up to 250-case batches of their special beers once a month. To do this, the brewery had to invest in a new automated labeling system.

After much research and a few false starts, they happened to find Weber Packaging Solutions online. They contacted Weber whose local rep came out to see what the best solution would be for Urban Growler. The brewery was growing and would need to be able to scale up to the larger brew runs at higher speeds in the future. Reliability was key to a new system and it had to be easy for the staff to operate.

Is it time for a label redesign at your brewery? Or are you contemplating a new exotic small batch run and need some craft beer label ideas?

Now you can get some help by downloading Weber's new Craft Beer Label Idea eBook. This publication has information garnered from the industry that will help you make some decisions about your labeling process, including:

• Label design tips and insights
• The benefits of pressure-sensitive labels
• Types of labels used by brewers
• The best label materials including new types of media available
• Labeling equipment options to fit your production
• Best way to add ink jet date codes to your bottles and cans

Weber has experience designing and printing labels for the craft beer industry and can help all brewers from start-ups to large mega corporations. Using th

e right materials and applying the labels correctly will make your brand stand out from the competition. Poorly printed craft beer labels, labels that don't stick when exposed to moisture, and labels that are applied crooked all make your product look bad. And with so many other craft brewers out there, you want to make a good impression with your audience of customers.

You can now order your limited run craft beer labels from Weber's Go-Label.com site! Choose from a wide range of materials and finishes to create a unique look for your brand. And the labels are steeply discounted as you buy more. Minimum order is only 1 roll of 500 labels! We can turn your order around in just 5 days after artwork approval. It's simple and easy to order. Use our Chat Live on Go-Label to ask our operator for more info.