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Booklet-style Beer Label Provides Comic Relief

Available in Italy, Comic Beer features three comic strips by acclaimed Spanish illustrator Alberto Madrigal that are secured to a trio of beers via a booklet-style accordion label.

The booklet-style label is approximately 39 in. and includes 16 panels (front and back).
The booklet-style label is approximately 39 in. and includes 16 panels (front and back).

The proliferation of craft beers has opened the door to a bounty of creative graphic designs—from minimalist to heavily illustrated, vintage to futuristic, and whimsical to sophisticated—designed to differentiate. But here’s a new one: a beer can with an accordion-style booklet label printed with a comic strip. The package is the brainchild of European branding and product design agency Reverse Innovation, which tapped acclaimed Spanish illustrator Alberto Madrigal to produce three comics to coordinate with a trio of craft beers.

“Beer and comics make a wonderful match!” says Mirco Onesti, Partner and Creative Director for Reverse Innovation, located in Milan and Amsterdam. “They are informal, but also satisfying at the same time; they are both perfect at just about any time and are two sources of instant gratification—a beer, which gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling, and a comic because it usually compresses an entire story into a few panels. Our idea is to create a sense of regular anticipation for this product, similar to a comic fan waiting at a newsstand.”

The concept was derived from a similar product launched by Reverse in 2015, called Librottiglia, from the Italian libro (book) and bottiglia (bottle), that mixed wine and literature using a “book label.” In that application, the characteristics of each wine were matched to a narrative genre “to create a perfectly balanced, eno-literary experience based on the impressions and scenarios imagined in the stories,” explains Onesti.

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