OUGD601 - Practical - Evil Twin - Martin Justesen

Evil Twin Brewery - Martin Justesen

Besides churning out killer beers like Even More Jesus and Bozo Beer, Denmark’s Evil Twin Brewing has consistently plastered their bottles with interesting labels. 
From the bold and often humorous names to the almost fractal-like design, the bottles and cans from Evil Twin are instantly recognizable. With a clean edge graphic design style featuring popping coloured vector shapes.

I found an article which interviews Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø and Martin Justesen about the process for coming up with beer names and the art that goes with them...

How do you go about designing a label?

We give Martin an idea, a taste of the beer and a look at it, and often a name and he creates a label from that.

I’ll often start doing sketches when I hear the name of the beer. Usually, I have two or three design ideas I’ll work on. Sometimes the beer is part of a series and I’ll work out the all-over look of the series. Sometimes it’s a label that is made for a certain bar or restaurant and I’ll take that into consideration. The look of an Evil Twin label is quite geometrical and graphic. Every label is built up by triangular shapes. I like for the labels to work on two levels, the first to grab your attention by standing out, and the second by containing details you later discover when you sit down and look at it close up.

You guys seem to have a lot of fun with the names and labels, was that a conscious decision?

Yes and no. We decided we wanted to do things differently and it just ended up like this. Like we used a graphic designer while most other craft beer labels are drawings, we just wanted to differentiate ourselves. With the label text, my wife writes them, and I just told her you can write whatever you want just don’t talk about the flavor/aroma of the beer, too many labels describe the beer and it is boring to read, and who are we to tell people how the beer tastes, let them figure it out.