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What goes into designing beer cans and bottle labels?


Brendan Bayard has empty bottles of beer and liquor on his desk.

No, this isn’t the aftermath of a wild company party. It’s just Bayard doing his homework.

As creative director and partner at Baton Rouge-based branding agency TILT, Bayard and his team create marketing materials for food and beverage companies in Louisiana and beyond.

Bayard has been designing for craft beer and spirits companies for more than 12 years. He graduated from LSU with a degree in graphic design in 2001 and cut his teeth working the night shift at Lamar. His career took him through several different agencies, and eventually he found himself creating packaging for Old Milwaukee and Pabst Blue Ribbon.

“Once I was redrawing the bull for Milwaukee and mocking up the ribbon for PBR,” he recalls, “I was like, ‘OK, I’m really doing this.’”

Today, most of the work he and TILT do is a little closer to home, focusing on brands like Bayou Teche in Arnaudville and Seven Three Distilling in New Orleans, as well as some breweries scattered across the United States. With the regional and national beer scenes constantly evolving, they never run out of work.

“The best seller for craft beer is always new,” Bayard says.

And that’s why creating a fresh design for each new bottle is so crucial. Here, Bayard walks us through how the process works.

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This article was originally published in the February 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.