Lucky Town Brewing
for Mabus Agency
Mississippi, along with other parts of the Southeast, is a growing destination for craft beer lovers. To stand out on the shelf, the label has to do work.
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Lucky Town Brewing didn't just want hand-crafted designs for their labels. They wanted memorable copy, too, copy that captured the personality of the brew, not just its ingredients.
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A beer label doesn't offer much space to work with, but space restrictions aside, these projects let me off my creative leash — which any creative needs from time to time.
Johnny Wit
Beer Can Label
When the Lucky Town crew lost a good friend to suicide, they wanted to dedicate a label to his memory.
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Writing about something so personal is always an honor and a privilege that I take quite seriously. With this project, I didn't feel right about speaking directly about suicide or about John Ingram.
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As trite as it may sound, this imagery came from the realm of the subconscious. I wish I could explain the "why" behind it, but I can't. I can only hope it reflects something bigger than us all. Most of all, I hope John Ingram would approve.
Stranger in the Alps
Beer Can Label
This Lebowski - themed brew is a reference within a reference.
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I saw no need to make this more complicated than it needed to be. Mainly, I wanted to avoid overplaying the Lebowski nod.
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Stranger in the Alps was Lucky Town's first brew in a line of limited run series. The most important part of this particular label was getting the "Limited Amounts of Luck" right, as it would appear on subsequent specialty beers.
Old No. 49
Beer Can Label
If you're from Mississippi, or you live there, the first question you ask about a beer is, "Can I drink this when it's hot outside?"
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We spend a lot of time outdoors here — fishing, floating the river, working, whatever. Sometimes you want a beer that has a little more to it than a Coors light but not something so thick that it sits like an extra meal.
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The Old No. 49 Farmhouse Ale is just that: the perfect beer to cap off a day in the Mississippi sun.
Lords of the Night
Beer Can Label
The Azacca and El Dorado hops steal the show in this brew, so we leaned into the Aztec theme in both copy and design.
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I drew on real Aztec mythology for this copy. It was one of those magical instances where research turns up something so interesting that the copy practically writes itself.
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For some reason, this label gets the most love on Untapped, which is basically like GoodReads for beer.
Fun While It Lasted
Unfortunately, luck wasn't on Lucky Town's side. The brewery shuttered in 2019. In the time we worked with them, we probably produced over a dozen labels for their unique brews.
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The Lucky Town crew made beers for other beer lovers. They were kindred spirits in terms of creativity and experimentation. I got the sense they were always having fun with it, and it was defintely fun being part of it for a little while.
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Design credit on these labels goes to Brennan Kennedy (Johnny Wit), Aaron Sather (Stranger in the Alps) and Robbie Richardson (Old No. 49, Lords of the Night). The latter two still work at Mabus Agency, creating killer designs.