1ZBRU ~ Craft Beer Label Design

The 1ZBru was a home brew crafted especially for the 1ZMTB Zambia Race, a cycle which spans approximately 245km of insanely beautiful and rugged terrain, from Lusaka (Zambia's capital city) all the way down, through the rugged, mountainous wilderness, to Kiambi Camp in the Lower Zambezi. Although there are many serious and competetive riders who partake in this international event, the general ethos of the race is one of eager adventure-seeking and festive comradeship.

The small team of event organisers, took it upon themselves to brew a home crafted beer, bottle it and package it as souvinir from the race.

I was approached by Owen and Ilke to design the labels for their bottles, the brief was pretty open ended- it needed to be simple, bold and chunky as well as representative of the event, so the label needed to bring focus to the race itself rather than the actual beer inside the bottle which is what makes the design strategy for this particular beer label unusual.

After producing numerous concept variations of bicycle tires, splaying bicycle spokes and such, the team decided to go with one of the original concepts- a classic badge design with the semiotic symbol of the gear- sturdy, enduring- a mechanism of movement.

Many of the details of the label elements have been made to look gritty, as if the bottle itself had been through the race with the riders.

The copy on the back reads; "Riders have outsworn Profanity Hill, Flown past Nankanga Hill, forgiven the Mother-in-Law and completed 245km of tough MTB trails to finally witness the mighty Zambezi River. You are all champions of 1ZMTB 2015. Enjoy a cold 1ZBRU"

I personally don't drink beer myself... but I think I just might start.

#photo #Lusaka #Zambia #beer #label #bottle #design #packaging #zambezi #1ZambiaMTB #Cycling #Bicycle #Gear #beautiful #minimalist