Why two major craft brewers are giving their labels makeovers

Craft beer has significantly risen in popularity and incited a huge influx of new breweries, both big and small. For two of the most popular and more established craft brewers on the market, Harpoon and Troegs, this presented a challenge to get noticed among their newer competitors. This, of course, meant an opportunity to update their branding and give their beer labels some overdue makeovers.

The Boston, Mass.-based Harpoon Brewery made a shocking decision when it revealed the new design for its flagship brew, Harpoon IPA: the signature harpoon had been dropped from the logo and replaced with a more modern illustration. The brewery opted for a cleaner design for the new labels, which feature a subtle blue checkered pattern and the image of a tiger in between two orange flowers. Besides a slight tweak to the design in 2009, this makeover is the first major change to the beer’s look since Harpoon began selling it in 1999.

“We hope it does help us stand out…that we’re easier to see on a shelf that’s just packed with craft beer brands,” Charlie Storey, Harpoon’s president, told the Boston Globe.

Troegs Brewing Company, which is based out of Harrisburg, Penn., also recently gave some of its beer labels a makeover, which includes some of the company’s most popular brews like Nugget Nectar, Troegenator and Perpetual IPA. The new designs are noticeably lighter than the beers’ previous logos and share similar design concepts.

“We wanted to continue with the hand-drawn illustrations and we really wanted to simplify it more,” said co-owner Chris Trogner in an interview with Penn Live. He explained that he wanted the bottles to look more uniform on store shelves.

Fans of Troegs’ beer can expect to see the new labels on liquor store shelves in November as well as in-store at the brewery, where Troegs has also included the new label designs on other pieces of merchandise, such as coasters and t-shirts.

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