Shumatsu
Designed three unique beer labels, the beer’s branding, a custom six-pack, and the logo for the beer’s brewery
A combination of my love of both Japanese culture and good brews, Shumatsu was my first time designing packaging. I really had to re-think my approach to design with this project, since all my previous design work was designing for print or screens. Designing a three-dimensional object was a challenge, but the process was ultimately very rewarding.
Process
A beer line inspired by modern Japanese graphic design and public signage was just one idea of many I had, but it resonated the most with me and my classmates when I presented my moodboards to everyone. In particular, the “Please Do It At Home” series of Tokyo Metro Subway posters by Bunpei Yorifuji was a major inspiration to me.
I wanted something simple, fun, and poster-ized, but I needed to decide what exactly I wanted to depict on the bottle, and also what I wanted the brewery’s identity to be like.
“Shumatsu” is the Japanese word for weekend, and the weekend has three days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Since many people up their alcohol consumption on weekends, and my beer line was to have three flavors, I decided to stick with the Shumatsu name for my brand. My flavors, then, would be for each day of the week. A rural rice farmer and his dog became the “mascots” of Shumatsu, and the flavors began to tell their story of travel and leisure on one Japanese weekend.
