I adore the intricate and handmade style of old beer labels.
Looking at it, you get a sense of immediacy and personality: There are real people behind both the artwork and the product, giving the beer a character that is handmade instead of mass-produced, and owner-operated instead of corporate.
Because of that, I’m always happy to see new breweries that share a similar philosophy. Munich’s Giesinger Bräu is one of these breweries: It’s modern and quickly growing, yet its origins lie in brewing experiments in the founder’s garage, and it still embraces a very personal culture.
Combining my love for vintage aesthetics with a modern brewery, I hence explored what a vintage-themed branding of Giesinger Bräu could look like.
Moodboard
To start out, I collected references for a moodboard. These included historical labels, stamps, tarot motifs and modern artworks (notably Florian Schommer’s), to help me set the tone for the designs and draw inspiration from their ornaments.
Sketching
Having settled on the idea to illustrate the beer types Hell (bright) and Dunkel (dark) as a dualism of sun and moon, I started to loosely draw some first sketches of the bottle labels. These helped me to clarify the layout before moving on to the next sketching phase, in which I further fleshed out the placements.
The Main Labels
I then proceeded to finalize the main labels of the beer bottles. The labels read Dunkel wie die Nacht (dark as night) and Hell wie der Tag (light as day). The coloring was done in darker variations of Giesinger Bräu’s main colors green and yellow, accompanied by wheat as a secondary color.
The Neck Label
For the neck label, I explored different options revolving around the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche (holy cross church), a landmark of the brewery’s neighborhood and a recurring theme in Giesinger Bräu’s imagery.
The finished bottle design
Coasters
What is a beer bottle without something to stand on? So for the coasters, I included the brewery's newly built well. This well provides Giesinger Bräu with water from Munich, thus giving them the status of a true Munich brewery and, with it, the right to serve beer at Oktoberfest.
Brewery Tour
The Giesinger Bräu facilities can be visited, and they offer guided tours of the brewery. For these tours, I designed a gift certificate (Gutschein) revolving around a lock and keys as a symbol of granting access.
While being happy with the illustration itself, I wanted to individualize the certificates a bit more. Therefore, I exchanged the core element for an illustration of one of their graffiti-covered brewing tanks.
Merch
And to round things off: Some stickers and t-shirts based on the existing brand elements.
Thanks for checking out my work!
