Shedding its skin

Craft beer and ale has always been distinct from its more generic mass produced counterpart, both in flavour and in the overall appearance of the product.

Skinner’s Brewery, based in Truro, Cornwall, is no exception.

Taking music and fashion as its main design inspiration, the brewery’s award-winning selection of beers and ales have been granted a makeover. The new designs, which have been in the pipeline for three years, are thanks to a range of UK-based artistic talent, and can be attributed to the customer preference for something a little bit different on their craft ales.

With the tattoo-inspired design of Cornish Trawler penned by music illustrator Alex T Frazer, the nature-inspired imagery adorning Hops ‘n’ Honey designed by Rose Forshall, and the sinister illustrations of Joe McLaren for Cornish Knocker, among many others, the brewery’s product range is now testament to the illustrative talent of UK artists.

Steve Skinner, head taster at Skinner's Brewery, says, “We have always known that the unique personality of each of our ales is what our customers love and our research backed this up. We made the decision to collaborate with a different illustrator for each of our core beers to celebrate this and allowed them the freedom to truly capture the spirit and individuality of each ale.”

This brand imagery redesign is part of a wider move to help the brewery target the international, as well as the national, market for craft ales. The taste for alternative beers in economies other than the UK is growing by the month, largely thanks to the 1,300 breweries now registered across the UK which ship abroad – indeed, the UK has more breweries per capita than any other country in the world.

The recent surge of interest in craft ale and craft beer has also bought with it a plethora of interesting flavours, and a revolution in the designs adorning the bottles.

Artisan brands now draw design inspiration from their surroundings, heritage, and famous influences, rather than simply the composition and production process of the ale itself. Some even now include quirky flavours, in a move which has done much to diversify the palette of ale industry fans.

Other artists lending their talents to the Skinner's redesigns are Stevie Gee, Chris Odgers, Skinner's Brewery partner Nick Beringer, and Cornwall-based artistic collective, A-Side.