
It’s not everyday a business celebrates twenty years. It might be considered even more noteworthy when it’s a small one that started during the early days of the craft beer movement in Portland. When it came time to acknowledge their milestone, Lompoc Brewing had an all-hands-on-deck meeting to plan a multi-day celebration spanning all of their pubs. At this point, my own relationship with Lompoc had been going for 4+ years so I knew my task would be developing the graphics promoting the events, but that made it no less flattering to be a part of such an important anniversary.
Owner Jerry Fechter’s first beer back in the day was a Märzen Ale called “Erst” (first in German). Head Brewer Bryan Keilty planned to brew a new beer inspired by Erst aptly named Zwanzig (twenty in German if you’re keeping score) which brought about the name of the week of celebrations – Zwanzig Fest. Oh, and Bryan wanted to bottle some Zwanzig as a surprise for Jerry, so we were going to need a label design too.
So I had a name, some dates, some background, and a tight timeline since I myself was heading to Germany (those numeric refreshers came in handy). We agreed it made sense to use the Bald Guy silhouette since it’s recognized across the brand, appears on all packaging, and it was Jerry’s anniversary too after all. From there I decided to keep it straight-forward with the traditional Lompoc colors of black and yellow (Jerry hails from Pittsburgh and supports its teams) and have some fun with those letters. How often do I get to work with two Zs anyway?
Eventually all the elements found their places, everyone loved it, it was secretly adapted into a label, the events were promoted and well-attended, and Jerry was happily surprised with his bottled and labeled beer. Prost!
You can learn more about Lompoc’s twenty years in business on my friend Ezra’s blog – Lompoc Brewing: Staying Fresh and Relevant at 20.
Tags: #pdxbeer, beer, beer design, beer label design, craft beer, design by jen, freelance graphic design, graphic design, portland beer, poster design