VNSCBW Collaboration - Ft. Altro Holographic Labels

The 80's just called.

Vancouver's North Shore Craft Beer Week features ten breweries joining forces to launch an incredible Hazy Foeder Double IPA with holographic labels by Altro.

North Vancouver, British Columbia (November 10th, 2021)

To celebrate VNSCBW 2021, ten breweries in North Vancouver joined to produce this oak foeder-conditioned beer with notes of tropical and stone fruits with citrus. And who'd they trust to produce RAD looking holographic cans? Altro Labels, of course.

It's because they knew we couldn't resist RAD 80's lingo. 👻

Kidding aside. Vancouver's North Shore is an incredible community of breweries with a rich history in the beer scene, having produced Canada's first microbrewery in 1982. The Shipyards District alone is home to eight breweries, with two more on the way. Of the ten in this collaboration, we proudly partner with eight.

And before we talk label, for you craft beer connoissuers, our 2021 VNSCBW Collaboration was brewed with heavy hands of wheat and oats - double dry hopped with Galaxy, BRU-1, and Azacca. This double IPA was then fermented and conditioned in oak foeder, contributing a whisper of funk and soft oak character to compliment notes of tropical and stone fruits, with the right touch of citrus.

So what's needed for a great beer? Great label design. Let's talk about the process.

The challenge.

Vancouver's North Shore Craft Beer Week wanted their label to be reflective (no pun intended 😉 ) of all ten collaborators, but also of the brewery hosting its first night of the festival.

House of Funk Brewing, known for their psychedelic and neon colour branding, helped establish holographic as the right choice. This would allow the label neutral colours (black and white) but with holographic reflections indicative of their brand.

Below is the first rendition of artwork in Adobe Illustrator that would need to be turned into three layers for proper holographic print.

The approach.

The logos and background needed to have maximum contrast, as to draw attention in a normal light environment free of reflection. We created 3 layers to ensure maximum holographic results.

Layer 1: Key Plate and Violet on Holographic Material. The background is printed black and surrounds all logos/text 👇

Layer 2: Matte Varnish for non-holographic background. The white logos and text reflect while the blue matte layer prevents un-wanted shine 👇

Layer 3: White underlay for non-holographic text. The pink words and barcode are printed to appear white👇

The resulting print was digital, using our Domino Inkjet on UPM's holographic BOPP.

The results.

A friendly reminder about the end results, to get reflection on the label, it's all about how the angle to which light hits it.

Straight on you can get the black and white but the best results come from in the dark, shining a strong fluorescent light source at it!

Fun facts: breweries per capita, British Columbia and Ontario vs North Vancouver.

Curious about how the brewery to people ratio works in North Vancouver versus the province and country? Here's a look.

British Columbia: 1 brewery for every 29,842 people.
Ontario: 1 brewery for every 54,275 people

British Columbia: Breweries, 191. Population, 5.7 mil.
Ontario: Breweries, 269. Population, 14.6 mil.

North Vancouver: 1 brewery for every 7505 people.

North Vancouver: Breweries, 11. Population 82,562.

"Number of licensed breweries in Canada as of December 2020, by region", according to Statista, consumer goods & FMCG, alcoholic beverages.