The Brons Standard

With his first foray into craft beer, Justin Brons felt the divine touch of Saint Gambrinus. He started keeping a notebook, a written record of playful flavor combinations he'd want to try in a beer. Inspiration soon led to perspiration. Craft breweries are certainly pushing the envelope, but they have yet to brew a Boysenberry Pale Ale. Well, Justin Brons has.

The Brons Standard certainly sets a high standard for flavor fusions. Justin and his fiance started with an Espresso Oatmeal Stout, and soon followed up with such unique beers as Blood Orange-Honey Maibock, Bourbon-Vanilla Porter, Toasted Pecan Oktoberfest, Honey-Lemon Hefeweisen, and a Pumpkin-Pumpkin Pie Porter. Yes.

Such innovation deserves branding. Branding like this:

I love the color scheme, the contrast, the two possible tops to the design. It's rich without being busy. So what's the Brons Standard for bottle cap design? Keep it simple. "If you look at professional craft brew caps, the caps are very simple.  You need to get across the attitude and image of your brewery, and you don't need a whole lot on there to do that.  For mine, I was just trying to keep it fun and organic." Amen, brother. You can really tell that your cap is successful when it looks good from far away.

A pro-class line-up.

Labels present a different design playground. The labels Justin likes to design have more color and detail than the caps, but the aesthetic principle remains the same: simplicity can speak volumes.

Let's admit it. A beer called Godzilla Dopplebock really does deserve the full cap-n-label treatment.

Ready to stomp Tokyo in style

Thanks for sharing your inspiration, Justin! We look forward with great anticipation to a Bacon and Fruity Pebbles Pale Ale. No, wait, nevermind. That sounds terrible.

Matt Johnston's Stream-lined Style

Like many a tale of romance, it all began with a Midwest Supply Groupon. Boy meets carboy, boy woos carboy, boy gets carboy, and seven batches later, Matt Johnston has, needless to say, fallen in love with homebrewing. What better way to seal the deal than with some custom caps?

Surprised to learn that Matt's been a graphic designer for over ten years? You shouldn't be. As the man himself puts it, "You'd think I would create something insanely colorful or off the wall but instead I created a two-line title with a solid block of color... But I like simple. I like good use of fonts and typography (leading, kerning, and tracking should all be taken into consideration and adjusted when using fonts). My thought process has always been 'less is more.'" Matt even has a reputation for refusing to buy certain beers if they're branded with terrible fonts or other graphic design sins. Some things just can't be forgiven.

Less is indeed more here with Matt's caps. It's bottle ID à la Aston Martin. It's fast and frill-less and arrives on your table with a sleekness worthy of a tuxedoed Bond. The simplicity also gives Matt the freedom to vary it or elaborate it without ever losing the original concept. Perhaps some day soon, he will even give his love a name.

Brew on, Matt, because You Only Live Twice.

Design Lesson #3: Cropping

Learn how to crop your photo into a circle, square, hexagon, star, or squirrel shape within the Inkscape program. This is a great technique for getting the most out of your photo on a bottle cap: cropping allows you to include only the details you want. Like that cutesy-wootsy, crazy bifurcated face.

Duck Street Brewing Co.

When it comes to design, homebrewer Brian Parker isn't just winging it.

Duck, Duck, Beer!

This cap truly fits the bill. The black-on-white contrast makes for a bold statement, and I'm really down with the design's simplicity, allowing the unique font and the detailed graphic to take flight.

Duck Street Brewing Company also features far from fowl labels for each of the brews.

Brian enjoyed working on the labels so much that he got interested in bottle cap design and found BottleMark. He's got all the right instincts: go to town on the labels, keep the cap super-clean, fly south for winter.

And name your brewery after something that facilitates puns. Because serious blog posts aren't all they're quacked up to be.

Design Lesson #2: Importing Images and Exporting Designs

Lesson #2 in our Inkscape Screencasts showcases 1) how to import images or photos from your computer into your design and 2) how to export your finished design as a PNG so it's ready to upload on BottleMark.com.

Also featuring the requisite cute kitty.

Design Lesson #1: Creating a Cap Canvas

Want to make better custom caps, but you're not a graphic geek? Good news! We just launched our first in a series of Inkscape screencast videos. The series begins with the most essential tasks and will move into the more complex tricks.

Today's video takes you from a new document in Inkscape to a ready-to-decorate cap canvas. 

Why are we such big fans of Inkscape, and not Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw? Three words: free, open-source, downloadable. There's no excuse not to. Get Inkscape now!

Don't forget: if you have any design questions, you can always contact me.

National IPA Day

Today we honor that most bombastic and beloved of beer styles...It's National IPA Day!

Ceci n'est pas une Pilsner.

Can you believe this is only the second National IPA Day? I mean, what the heck were my ancestors drinking anyway? The craft beer revolution is very, very young. Seriously: it's young. So toast its long health today!

The BottleMark founders are celebrating by cracking open the first of our new Cartwheel Galaxy IPAs--made with the citrusy, passion-fruity Galaxy hops of Aussie fame.

Ready to party

Here's to the hops!