Spear labels chosen for Scottish brewery’s new beer

Innis & Gunn, a Scotland-based specialty brewer, has launched a new brand. Melville’s Raspberry and Melville’s Strawberry (4.1 percent abv, 275ml) are fruit-flavored beers equipped with stylish labels printed by Spear.

Dougal Sharp, managing director of Innis & Gunn, said: ‘Oak-aged beer remains Innis & Gunn’s specialty and our brands are enjoying another very successful year, but our obsession with flavor always drives us to think about which other beer styles we might like to brew. We grow some of the world’s best strawberries and raspberries in Scotland. The flavors from the berries, in harmony with our beer, are as close to perfect as we can get.’

Following the success of the award-winning labels for Innis & Gunn’s Oak-Aged Beer (First Place – Finat – Flexography 2010), the brewers looked to Spear to create an equally impressive label for the product.

The vintage style designs with a contemporary twist are printed on a pressure-sensitive matte paper stock, decorated with bold variant colors. Spear combined this with a matte gold hot foil and a special rotary screen printed varnish to achieve a textured, eye catching finish.

Creative support and brand evaluation is a key element of the Spear System approach,’ said a spokesperson for Spear. ‘As part of Spear’s design process, our studio utilizes state-of-the-art digital imaging software. This allowed Melville’s brand developers to see a realistic 3D image of their label on screen. Not only is this ideal for developing and fine-tuning artwork early in the design process, it’s also an excellent tool for brand promotion. Innis and Gunn used our 3D prototypes to promote Melville’s to supermarket giant Tesco, where they now sell the product nationwide.’

Operations Manager Heather Gillespie comments: ‘We were incredibly impressed by Spear’s 3D software, which is quite revolutionary, allowing brands like Innis & Gunn to promote their product weeks before the labels are printed. It has been great to work with Spear as they are clearly leading the way with this kind of technology.’

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