By Kyle Kirves

“We wanted a beacon calling from the shelf. Something iconic. Crisper and more mature,” says Adam Avery of the new branding initiative launched in 2018 at his namesake Boulder brewery.

The urban-inspired images by artist Neil Shigley alternate from the literal to the abstract depending on the beer, all popping off a stark white can. Or maybe canvas is a better word.

How white? Wedding cake white. Alpine snow white. All that whiteness and brightness has the desired effect: Avery beers leap out from the dark stacks of colors, names, and labels in an increasingly crowded beer aisle.

But there’s more to it than just standing out — it’s also showcasing the culture of Avery Brewing.

“We’re scientists, but we’re also artists,” explains Adam, founder of Avery. “It’s a major shift in image, but we wanted the branding to stay true to ourselves and the liquid. Something impactful and powerful.”

The whiteness, the clean lines, the high-contrast font, and simple three-word descriptors speak to the scientist, Adam explains. The individual art — like the hyper-detailed candy skull that adorns Avery’s El Gose — expresses the creative and imaginative side.

El Gose is a personal favorite of Neil’s, who cites the striking and intricate Day of the Dead imagery as attention-grabbing. Neil lives in San Diego and is perhaps best recognized in the fine art community for his portraits of homeless people in Southern California. He praised the entire Avery staff and the creative process behind the new branding catalog.

“Adam is really passionate about the beer and the art that goes on it and that’s true of everyone I’ve worked with at Avery. They have really been open and positive, creatively,” Neil says. “At the end of the day, your art’s on beer. What’s cooler than that? I would have done this job for nothing.”

The transition marks a progression from Avery’s original home-cooked images and phase 2’s badge-shaped label art and images. Phase 3’s new white label art is a dynamic and startling switch for Avery, but one that makes the presentation vehicle as great as the beer inside it. Readily identifying an Avery beer is important to both Avery and to the craft beer enthusiast who trusts the brand to deliver exceptional ales and lagers.

Nowhere is the artistic evolution more apparent than in the flagship White Rascal. The classic art borrows from the Belgian tradition of devilish logos with a sinister undertone. Adam says they wanted to preserve the intent, but bring a gentler aspect to the titular character.

“We spoke with some of the women who work here about what they thought about (the character),” Adam says, “and they responded that he was a little creepy. They said, ‘Yes, I’d party with him – but not alone.’”

Neil’s mandate was to revise the White Rascal and, in a word, to make him more “fun.” After more than two dozen back-and-forth design iterations, the new image preserves the coloration of the original, but softens him up a bit. Rascal 2.0 is a little less Dante’s “Inferno” and a little more Fat Tuesday.

When asked if he has a favorite among the new images, Adam demurs and says it changes day to day. “Right now, I’d say it’s the art Neil did for Hazyish,” he said. The art is an abstraction of a hop flower that Neil got right on the first take, according to Adam.

“He did it and I was like, ‘That’s it.’ End of design session,” he says. Shrugging, he adds, “Most people don’t know what a hop looks like. So to them, this is just a great piece of abstract art.”

Neil also lists the abstraction among his favorites.

Other refreshes include the new take on the Labrador retriever on old-school fave Ellie’s Brown and the Hawaiian idol on the Liliko’I Kepolo. New brands showcasing Neil’s woodcut style include a tribute to brewing director Fred Rizzo’s partially missing finger on Double Digit hazy IPA.

Adam suggests that perhaps the most personal of the new beers and images is the Avery Lager.

“Our brewers wanted to just make a crisp, clean-drinking traditional lager beer and they sold me on it,” Adam explains. “They owned that beer concept. So when it came time to pick an image to associate with it, I needed something that spoke to that.”

He ultimately arrived at an inside reference – literally – to the tile pattern on the production floor of the brewery. Neil took the pattern and made a stylized image for the can art that looks tartan in effect, but is actually, uh, grounded in Avery’s makeup. No Avery beer exemplifies the brewery’s teamwork and creativity from inception through to packaging more than Avery Lager.

Eventually, all the legacy branding will be supplanted by the new look. The “Tap Room Rarities” series already boasts the white sleeve. Future releases from Avery will naturally sport the new wrapper, including experimental and seasonal offerings.

Avery fans can also look forward to new, flavorful, satisfying products that just happen to be low-calorie and low-carb, easily finding them in white cans, shoulder to shoulder with their Avery brethren.

Bright white has always figured in Avery’s branding, from the signature flagship “A” logo on a white ring to the stark white architecture of the headquarters. With the new imagery, Avery Brewing is achieving a thematic unity between the product and the production facility. Each can is a postcard from the brewery, and a tangible expression of Avery Brewing’s commitment to making better beer in better ways.

Kyle Kirves drinks beer, plays guitar, runs trails, and manages projects – all with varying degrees of success. While not a craftsman himself, he is quite content writing about the Colorado artisans who create such wonderful things and memorable experiences.