30 STORY OF A CAP
Index Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 My Collection of Bottle Caps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Does It Make a Difference? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Brand Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Brand Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Colours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Shape & Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Everyday Cap Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Iducti ntroon This book is going to look at why is the beer cap design important and what are the components of this design. Here you will also find the difference between brand identity and brand image. Together we’ll explore how the brand wants their product to be seen and how people actually perceive it. Content is going to be based around my collection of 30 beer bottle caps .
MY COLLECTION
OF BOTTLE CAPS
UNITED KINGDOM
DOES IT MAKE A DI F FERENCE? Influence of these country on a cap.
Poland
The collection has 15 Polish and 15 English caps. The big wonder is whether the country in which they were found had influence on them. The most obvious difference is typography, because both of these languages use different alphabets. This means that Polish caps had a little bit more
restrictions, as many typefaces don’t use Polish signs. Another difference are the places in which the caps were found. In England they were mainly found in or around the pubs, around private houses, sometimes in parks, which were far from the city centre, so that weren’t visited by
police officers as often. The Polish ones were easier to find, as they were everywhere. Around shops, parks, rivers on the street. This is due to the fact that there aren’t as many police patrols in Poland as they are in UK. Where we find the caps adds up to how they are perceived.
BRAND IDENTITY
The brand components are created by the business itself. They make their brand in a way in which this business wants it to be perceived, which doesn’t mean that it is actually perceived it this way. Bottle cap is one of the bigger components of the brand identity. It has always been an important item in beer industry, because of its bottle sealing function, but also because of their marketing function. It is a small canvas for marketing the brand, to put small designs and logo onto, in order to achieve a better brand recognition. Beer caps were intended to be seen in shops, pubs and bars and be a small item which you can keep and put into your pocket. The initial
consumers attention in these places, ultimately associated with the ability to purchase alcohol products. Even though in pubs or bars there is a bar dispenser equipment, they still sell bottled beer which is very popular, so that it is very common place to see bottle caps. People who consume their drinks in these places most of the time end up holding the cap all night, playing with it, putting from one place to another, which idea was for them to grab
makes them very familiar with the colours, texture, shape and brand. This means that strategy for brand identity has worked and the brand is perceived as it is intended to do. When people see a cap in a pub/bar, they view it as an extra piece of design, an ornament, part of their usual beer purchasing and drinking experience. In this case they perform a good marketing function, which allows the consumer to complete their experience of alcohol consumption.
BRAND IMAGE
Brand image is what people actually think of the brand and how they view it. It often isn’t controlled just by the business, but by the environment. If the brand image and brand identity differ too much it wil make selling the product more difficult. We are exposed to bottle caps everyday and it adds up to brand image, because it is environmentally driven factor, rather than something planned by the business. Very common places to find bottle caps are benches, parks, bus stops, quieter streets etc. They are pretty much everywhere we look and it is not something intended by the beer industry. They did not invent caps to be dropped everywhere and to litter and damage the environment.
It isn’t something promoted by the business, but something they try to avoid, by putting information on the bottles about being recyclable. However people still tend to litter with bottle caps and leave them everywhere. This can be a good an a bad thing for the business, as it adds up to the marketing and brand image. The good thing is that it makes the brand more recognisable and remembered and some people won’t mind seeing them in the grass for
example. There is another group of people, who will feel that this is bad for the environment and will leave them with the bad view of the brand. As you can see where you and others leave a single, small bottle cap makes a huge impact on the business, as it leaves some people more aware of the brand and as they see more and more caps lying around with the same brand on top they will reach out for the product, where others would try to avoid it.
COLOURS Usage of colour in a single cap. Colour plays an important role in bottle cap design, as it gives many restrictions. Designers avoid using detailed elements with too many colours, because of the canvas size. The general rule is to design in square or circle, so the you use all available space wisely. Most of the design stick to high contrast in colour, so that it is easier to read in this size. They use light colours on dark
background and dark on light background. Primary and secondary colours are also very popular. As seen in the viewed collection most common colours are red, green, blue and gold. On the right hand side you can see the colour scheme of the entire cap collection shown in this book. Also underneath you can view few of the caps with their colour schemes specified.
“Colour is a human need like water and fire. It is a raw material indispensable to life.� - Fernand Leger
EXPERI E NCE How a cap adds to the experience of drinking beer. There are many things which add up to an experience of drinking beer. There are things like the low temperature of the beverage, the place where you drink, atmosphere, company, taste, colour, smell, but one of the most important ones is the sound. Sound of an opening beer of bottle is something very recognisable among people. Many people say that they find this sound to be very pleasant. They associate it with free time, relax and holidays. Most of them think of this sound as something what indicates time in which they don’t have to worry about everyday life problems. That’s why a bottle cap is so important when it comes to beer. Without it this experience might be completely different.
START SIMPLE
SHAPE & RECOGNI T I O N How important is the shape? Shape of a bottle cap is very recognisable among people. It owes this recognition to the simplicity of the shape and the fact that it hasn’t changed throughout the years. Most of the beer companies create bottle caps in the exact same way, only changing the design on top. That is because a metal cap is a great way of sealing the bottle. Also it is something what people expect to see now. They’ve learned to associate this shape with beer. It became so well known that even when you turn it to the back and flatten the cap people would still know that it is in fact beer bottle cap. All of this recognition lies in the shape,
texture and material used. From a designers point of view it only indicates that things, which people consider to be trivial in fact make a huge difference. The shape or texture of a product gives the consumer a whole different experience. This is why brands don’t want changes, but prefer to stick with current shape of a cap.
EVERYDAY CAP USAGE What are cap collections used for? Apart from its marketing and brand image use, cap is widely used as an everyday object and attracts many passionate collectors. It is commonly used in art, fashion and design. Artists create paintings inside of them or huge pieces of art
such as landscapes of portraits out of caps. They are used to decorate cars, as key rings, pieces of jewelry or even by some fashion designers to create pieces of clothing. On the left hand side and above photographs show work of a
very talented fashion designer Yoav Kotik. He creates some of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry and accessories made out of caps that I have ever seen. He also presents them with these posh photographs indicating luxury.
BEER
Because one doesn’t solve the world’s problems over white wine.