Spotlight: Modern Times Beer Can and Branding Design

One of my favorite quirks about craft beer is the creativity breweries showcase when it comes to branding and packaging their products. Can designs, bottle labels, freight packaging, and even bottle styles are different and unique from each brewery. My love of sports uniforms and team branding is what got me started on really focusing on how my beer looks on the shelf, as much as how it tastes once I crack it open. There are many great beer design sites to keep track of the ever growing craft beer market and it’s countless designs. Sites like My Beer Buzz and Oh Beautiful Beer are two of my favorites. 

While browsing these sites, I have yet to find an overall branding design that has struck me like Modern Times Beer of San Diego, California. The brewery teamed up with design company Helms Workshop. The company took Modern Times founder Jacob McKean’s brewery namesake of a former Utopian society and forward looking historical icons, and put them into the design. With the help of a professional typographer, the design was born.

Year Round Releases

““Jacob wanted a classic design with a timeless feel, and he felt strongly that a matte white can would help differentiate Modern Times,” said Helms Workshop designer Erick Montes. “With the three colored stripes as a bold unifying theme and a drop shadow highlighting the logos curves, the final design really does stand apart.” -BeerPulse January 2013

Special Release 22 oz bottles

All Modern Times products are canned, except for a few Special Release bottles each year. The can and bottle uniform design features sleek, matte white cans with three colored stripes along the bottom, and the Modern Times name in script. The name of the particular beer is arched at the top and matches the color of the three stripes below. Finally, the script logo is outlined in the certain colors of that beer, and the secondary logo is positioned under the beer description. The sharp white background and the uniformity of the design overall make it my favorite. When I see these cans, I instantly think of baseball, with the script name and colored stripes like stirrups. Just an absolute gorgeous design!

Seasonal Releases

Modern Times is currently distributing around San Diego and Southern California. A small brewery (30bbl) and two tasting rooms are available in the Point Loma neighborhood. This means getting my hands on these gorgeous cans is almost impossible here in Chicago. I guess my trip to San Diego will be coming sooner than I thought!