Wilderness Brewery
Location - Powys, Wales
Year - 2023
Design Credits - Illustrations by Sophie Potter
Photo Credits - Wilderness Brewery
Explore - Wilderness Brewery
Wild little beers with an organic design approach, naturally
In a world of beer branding which (of relatively late) seems awash with repeat patterns, vector graphics and look-at-me typography it’s really refreshing to see an alternative.
The alternative in this case is from Wilderness, a small, family-run brewery and orchard in rural mid-Wales who specialise in farmhouse style beers, aged and soured in oak. As their website puts it: ‘We don’t rush into things, we like to let nature do the talking. We make wild little beers and co-ferments, experimenting with new ingredients, seasonality, barrel ageing, and mixed fermentation.’
It’s therefore completely natural (pun intended) to have looked to a much more organic and expressive approach for their label designs which would echo this ethos and approach to their brewing. This has been achieved in a large part by the focal point for each beer being these delightful botanical illustrations, created by Sophie Potter.
They are so beatifully evocative and leave you with little doubt as to the type of beer to expect within. Ably assisted by hand-rendered typography and Wilderness’s playful brand mark (originally designed by Formation Creative I believe), they really do make a refreshing change on the shelf.
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I really love the looseness of the layouts too - there’s a welcome lack of rigidity here, without it being at the expense of being able to immediately recognise it’s a Wilderness beer. Sometimes (and to be fair it’s understandable) beer labels can fall into a ‘template trap’ of looking samey and whilst it might be great for recognition on the shelf, it can lead to a bit of visual fatigue over time I think.
Skillfully avoided here though, on both can and bottle because of the consistent illustration and typographic approach.
Overall, a design approach which both offers a refreshingly different approach to the norm and one that matches up to the beer so appropriately.
Thanks to Wilderness Brewery for the image reproduction.
