Creative packaging – on both cans and bottles – is a way for craft breweries to have their products stand out on the shelves. Even if solely distributed from the source, a label or design printed directly to the substrate helps provide an identity – an instantly recognizable image and brand – the brewery seeks.

JP Flexner creates the packaging artwork – along with art and design projects for the brewery, apparel, logos and murals – for Neshaminy Creek Brewing Company, which is located in Croydon, Pa.

“Our process is really very straightforward,” Flexner told Ink World. “Every so often I’ll meet with our head brewer, Jeremy Meyers, to discuss future releases and artwork needs. Jeremy always comes to the table with lot of well informed, entertaining ideas. Between the two of us, we come up with concepts for each offering.

“I then turn those ideas into sketches, pencil art,” he continued. “Once Jeremy approves the sketch, I move on to inking the artwork, vectoring the ink drawings, coloring the illustration and eventually setting the type.”


Flexner has created fonts for Neshaminy Creek based on his handwriting.

“Once I have drawn the ‘headline’ type and vectored it for the label, Jeremy, who is quite fluent in Adobe Illustrator, will use my custom fonts to set in the smaller, support type like the description of the beer, the ABV (alcohol by volume) and the volume,” the Philadelphia-based artist said. “He then adds the UPC and sends it to print, either as a label to be applied to a can or bottle, or a direct to substrate can.”

Why does the brewery choose to print direct-to-can – on, for example, its Shape of Hops to Come India Pale Ale or Croydon Cream Ale?

“In the long run, a 4-6 color direct to substrate can is the most cost effective,” Flexner noted. However, he added that only seven of Neshaminy Creek’s more than 50 offerings are year-round.

“Those seven beers, along with four semi-annual beers, are the only offerings that necessitate enough cans to make the direct to substrate print run a cost-effective option,” he said. “So, for the other numerous limited releases and seasonal beers, we get full color sticker labels printed as we need them and apply them to bottles and cans in house.”

According to Meyers, the head brewer, Neshaminy Creek uses Ardaugh or Crown for its printed cans.