Some of the Clown Shoes beer labels, such as Tramp Stamp and Lubrication, are leading to lots of controversy. This got us to reading about the graphic designer for both. While we reserve judgment about the labels at issue, the blog post by the label designer for Clown Shoes is so good and vigorous that we wanted to cover it here. The designer of the label on the left is Stacey George. She is based in Massachusetts, and she talks about the issues in a July 6, 2011 post entitled “Sometimes, a Pipe is Just a Pipe.”

“Are Clown Shoes’ labels offensive?” Sure. Why not? Offensive is a subjective term. If you look at the labels and find yourself offended, there you go. Do you have the right to say so? Abso-friggin-lutely! Shout it from the highest mountain, or your Twitter account, or your brothers’ website, whatever your bullhorn is, use it, loud and proud. Here, let me loan you a sandwich board and a bell, you can be offended Town-Crier style, I got your back.

My labels for Clown Shoes—which were named Best Craft Beer Art of 2011 by PourCurator.com—are not illustrated with a sexist intent. For instance, a Tramp Stamp is a tattoo placed on the lower back of a woman to emphasize her sexuality. In Germany, they call it, Arschgeweih, meaning, “Ass Antlers.” Can you imagine if we had named a beer Ass Antlers!? We have nicknames for these tattoos because they have a purpose. The woman who has one is confident in her sexuality and she is enticing the viewer to appreciate her. A woman who is comfortable in her own skin and likes how she looks is a sexy woman. Sexy is not sexist. In fact, sexist is rarely sexy.

As a woman, and an artist, I have a hard time with [the] images being labeled chauvinistic. Chauvinism is an attitude of superiority over the opposite sex. I’m not designing women who are inferior, I’m designing women who celebrate who they are. So, who is bringing the inferiority? The viewer? The offended? It’s a complicated question.

Stacey George probably did not design the wine label on the right. But while we are appreciating Stacey’s work, and thinking about tramps, we wanted to include at least one more tramp-related label. Stamp du Tramp is bottled by Greg & Greg, Inc. of Sebastopol, California.

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I got to talking with Dan Matauch the other day. He is a leading package designer in Michigan, at Flowdesign. I would have been impressed enough that he handled the design for Honest Tea. But he also handled Peet’s Tea, and Xango (aka Tiger Blood), and most of the designs really appeal to me. The list goes on and on, with Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine, Blue Ice Vodka, and the not-to-be-ignored Bawls and Stubb’s.

I was fairly surprised to see that Dan worked on the package design for Pama Pomegranate Liqueur — and it had some kind of patent. The March 2010 press release says:

To differentiate its product, PAMA Spirits turned to the expertise of Flowdesign to develop a custom bottle that was both unique and could be patented. … Flowdesign is a unique branding firm where experience is infused in both brand graphics and structural design. Founded in 1997, Flowdesign has led the brand design field in custom structural design with 10 prestigious GPI (Glass Packaging Awards).

It surprised me because the conventional wisdom seems to be that it’s normal to get a trademark related to alcohol beverages — but it’s not realistic to get a patent. The conventional wisdom may be too simple. We have covered several alcohol beverage-related patents in the past, such as Malt Liquor, Cubes, and Fruity Caps. To understand this better, I talked with Paul Hletko. Paul is perfect to dissect this because he happens to be a patent lawyer — and runs Few Spirits (of Evanston, Illinois). Paul explained as follows:

The beverage alcohol business is exceptionally competitive.  Innovative companies are always trying to distinguish themselves to stand out from the competition, while others try to engage in “sincere flattery.”  Brands can go a long way by distinguishing themselves with distinctive and unique propositions, but this can attract copying.  After investing the time and money for uniqueness, it is rare that a brand welcomes a copycat.  Protecting against these problems can be expensive short term, but prove highly valuable long term. One of the first strategies to protect innovation is the use of trademarks.  However, trademarks are “usage” based and thus have certain advantages and disadvantages.  In particular, it can be difficult to gain traction with a new trademark. This short post is not intended to address trademarks – another topic for another day.

Another potential strategy is to seek patent protection for unique and nonfunctional designs.  In the beverage alcohol industry, this typically means unique bottle designs. For example, the PAMA brand secured design patent protection for a new bottle. D598,777 S claims this unique bottle shape, and gives its owner the exclusive right to make, use, or sell bottles with that design for the life of the patent.  Other designs could also qualify for design patents, such as a unique bar top (Blanton’s) or the like. A design patent covers the design of an object, so long as the design is not mandated by the function.  Additionally, the design must be novel as well as not obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art.  Unlike trademarks, however, design patents have a limited life span, and the patentee may be faced with questions about what to do after the patent expires.  But, so long at the design patent remains in force, the owner of the design patent has the exclusive right to make, use, or sell the design.

Unlike trademarks, design patents are based on registration, and prior to registration, the design patent application must be examined to ensure that the design is indeed novel, useful, and nonobvious.  Unfortunately, this can cost money, but the advantage of the exclusive right to make, use, or sell may justify the investment.  If your product is getting a new bottle or other design flourish, you should consider trying to protect the investment. By no means does this brief note apply to all situations, and it is not legal advice, but it should help you talk with your attorney – consult your attorney for guidance on how best to capitalize on your unique situation.

Thus, if one of your brand’s differentiating characteristics is a new bottle design or other similar packaging, consider and evaluate whether a design patent would be appropriate. Paul explained that the cost will likely be significantly lower than the investment in the new design itself (molds, designers, etc.) and the investment may prove highly valuable when the “flattery” starts.

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Here is an experimental beer label, sent in from one of our favorite label designers. It is from Dave Bourne of Ignite Design in Portland, Oregon. Dave saw it at The Dieline and commented as follows:

You don’t need beer goggles to fall in love with this label design. Beyond the irreverent text and what seems to be their logo of an inebriated beer droplet, there is a design aesthetic that easily combines all the random graphic elements together as a cohesive unit. Who knew you could use no less than seven different typefaces and make them all work together in unison? It helps that all the graphics are gold on a simple off-white paper stock. Also, the placement of every design element fits within a grid-like structure that allows you to look at each component of the design within its own square or rectangular space.

While you’re throwing back a few of these, it’s clear that you won’t be bored with ubiquitous “Don’t drink and drive” statements or graphics of the various kinds of hops they’ve used. Instead, you’ll enjoy a little lesson in beer chemistry along with a few fireworks and an exclamation of “SWEET JESUS” possibly reminding you to pray for more of this beer when it runs out.

We blurred up some of the swear words, and you can see the unexpurgated version at the link. I like this design and would not resist buying the beer or drinking it, but I think Dave likes it more than I do. Where are the other great beer label designs and designers? What makes them great?

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First it was a major book. Then “A Major Motion Picture.” Now, “Eat, Pray, Love” is an Italian wine coming to a store near you. If the wine sells, too, who knows what will be next. The Wii game? EPL analgesics? I also wonder to what extent the success of this franchise is due to the power of good design and font choices; this would just not be the same in Times New Roman.

These wines, referring to the Elizabeth Gilbert book, are imported by Chateau Diana of Healdsburg, California.

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This Bear Flag label looks to be a big departure from the staid Gallo labels of decades past. The design of this “dark red wine” label does not seem to have a whole lot in common with, for example, this Carlo Rossi label from a few years back.

The newer, more whimsical labels are apparently designed by Eduardo Bertone. There is not a lot of information about this designer or this brand on the web. Even at Bertone’s site, there seems to be a whole lot of whimsy and not much information.

To the extent the Bear Flag labels raise a good legal issue, it is fun to imagine Mr. Bertone poring over the CFR to make sure the Warning is perfect. Or, TTB evaluating each and every image and suggestion and flight of fancy (what is the bear drinking, does it contain tomatoes, please explain why a bear would have a cow bell). As of last week, Gallo had about 11 Bear Flag COLAs, from May 2009 to April 2010.

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This is Before-After Beer, produced by Rinkuskiai beer company of Lithuania. It is imported by Aiko Importers of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. With a little help from Rinkuskiai, the old man metamorphosizes into the young woman, providing further evidence for this and this theory.

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As if “The Wizard of Oz” and “Wicked” had not already made enough money, and entwined themselves enough into our culture, here comes Wicked Wine. It is bottled by Grove Street Winery of Healdsburg, California. I have resisted the urge to see this play, but I must say the graphics are striking. It would be tough to walk by a display of this wine without noticing Glinda and Elphaba. I suppose this could open Grove to the charge that it appeals to minors, like Ratatouille wine, but then again isn’t this the last thing a 19 year old would bring to a party?

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In the last post we discussed Braille wine labels. Today, Morse Code, as on this Australian wine label.

Morse Code was invented in the 1840s and is an early form of the digital encoding so widespread today. As with many of the Braille labels, the Morse Code label here does not seem to explain the message embedded in the code. Does TTB require it? Should TTB require it? Finally, who can decode this? For the energetic, there is a decoder here.

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The technique is the same as printing visible labels:  an iron Braille negative is pressed onto the back of the paper label to make the Braille bumps. Mr. Chapoutier decided to use his 40-year-old printing machine to make every one of the 2.5 million bottles of wine he produces each year. They have proved a success … . As fewer than 20,000 of the one million registered blind and partially sighted people in the UK can read Braille, other methods are also being urged including the use of audio-tapes, large print and computer disks.

The article explains that bleach and eye drops are the only other UK products imprinted with Braille.

It would seem that the Braille text should be covered on the TTB label approval, just like English letters, or any other language such as Japanese. And yet we have flipped through quite a few label approvals with Braille and very few mention Braille on the label approval.

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