Yeah, I usually troll the interwebs to find a perfect pic for my label concept. Since I am not selling it, and usually only label those bottles I give away to friends, I don't fear copyright issues (maybe I should?).
As for process, I simply use Powerpoint, and hand jam everything else to fit the concept in my head. Again, these are not mass produced, so I am mainly just having fun, for the entertainment of my beer recipients...
CHUCK
No complaints from me! I just often can't FIND the "perfect pic" to fit my idea. I usually end up settling on something "close enough" and even then often end up piecing together several images in Photoshop to get it to look just-right (or at least as close as my skills can get it.)
Take this one, for example:
Finding a high-res image of the original Dukes of Hazzard cast is nearly impossible. I took a large, slightly blurry image of "Cooter" and refined it as best I could. Then I scoured Google for a good looking barn photo. Both trees in the image were added (you can tell on the left one where there's white behind the leaves where it overlaps the barn.) The General Lee was taken from a VERY high-resolution image from the 2005 Film (when they jumped the roadblock towards the end of the film) and I think it was taken by a bystander - it wasn't a production movie shot. Making it look like it was "flying" was tough - I added dirst/dust on the underbody and behind the car to make it look like it had just cleared the barn. There's also a Barracuda added to the image on the left of the barn behind the fence - that was kinda tricky.
All that, and this was one of the EASIER bottle labels I made - I was able to find everything pretty easily except Cooter himself!
The challenge is finding one like yours - a "cartoon" or drawn photo that incorporates all the elements. Finding free photos is pretty easy - you could probably use them without much legal hassle. But drawings are much harder to find, and even harder to "fabricate" your own (unless of course you can draw... ...which I can't...)
Here's an example:
I wanted to use this image for a "Liberty" IPA SMaSH beer, but could NOT find a version of it that didn't have the top cut off, and was a higher resolution - this was the original image. It was exactly the idea I wanted - a "sexy" Statue of Liberty. I just couldn't make it happen. I ended up settling for this:
love the lady liberty. any idea who the original artist was?
Here's my most recent label. I brewed this brown ale on the evening of some major thunderstorms. I really like this beer, it has a nice hint of smokiness to it.
And thus, Thundersmoke Brown Ale was born.
Cool - are you using the OnlineLabels.com labels like the ones I post? I like the banner you made for the neck label - the only problem I have is getting a print shop to center the image on the label as best as possible. Kinko's (Fedex) is TERRIBLE about it...
Yep, I'm using those very labels. Thanks, my artist friend did a nice job on them, I think.
Have you downloaded the template from onlinelabels.com? It makes it really easy. Put your art inside the crop marks, then hide that layer and print it as a full sheet.
Granted, I print them myself as opposed to kinkos, but again, if you give them a full page image, they can't really screw them up.
PJoyce85 said:So this will be my first label. This will be for the Quad I brewed for my wedding and Concatenation means to join together.
Thoughts?
Feurhund said:Not sure if you are a Freemason or not, but the letter "A" in that font looks just like a square and compass. Hit me immediately, but I see it all the time.
It would be a cool hidden symbol if the groom was a Mason.
Overall, great label.
Made this for a batch I brewed for a guy I work with. A bit snarky since there's a fair amount of ballbusting between us on a daily basis.
okay i gotta ask. what the hell is leftover casserole stout? got a recipe?
My latest, for a stout that can't seem to retain a head to save it's life....
Yeah that's what I do. I even modified the template PDF with the pixel range that equals the middle-point of each label - allows me to center text and such precisely within the label without having to re-measure each time.
The woman at the local print shop said it has something to do with indexing the printer itself and that being a large volume shop, Kinkos probably doesn't worry about it. I've tried printing them myself on our work machines, but they smeared like CRAZY somehow - looked awful.
Cool. Do you cut them out by hand, or do you have stickers with that shape? If so, where'd you get them?for my Oktoberfest
I like the thin ribbon-type label vertical down the bottle. Rather original. What's holding it on, wax? If so, how do you do the custom image?Barleywine in some martinellis bottles
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