SAMUEL ADAMS
22oz. SMALL BATCH SERIES | DARK DEPTHS BALTIC PORTER
THE WHY?
This is the one that kicked it all off.
The overall Small Batch Series concept was built around this first beer – Dark Depths Baltic Porter.
Launching the Small Batch Series was a big brand move at the time for Boston Beer Company and this brew was a great one to kick the series off on the warm shelf. There beers are books. That was the core concept of this series. Each brew was a brewer's special project or contemplation. So with that brief established for the Brewer's we knew that the labels need to have the same consideration. That is why this one has the strongest presence of a sketch book setting. The idea was that you may have actually run across the brewer's sketchbook that he or she was doodling in while developing the recipe and process.
THE HOW?
I've also included some images below to show some of the other concepts that were presented during the concept development for the series. The crappy drawing in the middle is where (in my opinion) the whole series was born. I love the idea of a dichotomy and or a high contrast point. I wanted this image to be really compelling and full of a story that the consumer could make up themselves... very much a "what the hell happened there" idea. I also love the idea of the sketchbook label. THAT was the original idea and one that I wish had made it all the way to the shelf. But I do think the essence of the idea lived on the final ideas.
These amazing final illustrations were done by the very talented illustrator Dahl Taylor.
