TOP 10!

Thanks to everyone who voted in the 2024 GABS Label Design Awards, presented by Orora. Our expert judging panel has determined the final rankings, and the winners have been revealed! Congratulations to all the creative teams behind these incredible designs. See you again next year!

meet our judges!

#1

Hop Federation

Hold the Line NZIPA

Evan Matthews

The idea of ‘escapism’ for the audience weighed heavily in the design process whilst ensuring that the brand icon of the hop was still the singular focus. The audience literally must view the beer through the icon of the hop. The connection to the New Zealand bush pays homage to the very essence of being present to the land and the gifts it provides. Hold the Line is just this — a moment of reflection. This also served us well for creating strong digital assets.

#2

Heyday Beer Co

Galactic Grounds Dirty Chai Latte Stout 6.9%

Hannah Blackwood

Prepare for an interstellar journey with Heyday Beer Co’s, Galactic Grounds Dirty Chai Latte Stout, a cosmic companion to the SpacePunk Barrel-Aged Baltic Porter & SkyPunk Baltic Porter.

Galactic Grounds blends the vastness of space with the comforting warmth of a chai latte. The digital painting style of the label transports you where floating space whales drift among the cosmos. Here, “Galactic” captures the ongoing space fantasy of Heyday’s stouts & porters, while “Grounds” leading to the coffee flavours in the stout.

#3

Canyon Brewing

Be Here Now - Hazy Pale Ale

Mikaela Turner

We partnered with Sherwood on this project to create a co-branded beer that makes a positive impact. A portion of the profits from the ‘Be Here Now’ support local biodiversity initiatives in Queenstown, helping to offset the emissions generated in its production.

With this greater cause at the root, we wanted to create a label that was inspired by the area’s natural beauty, showcasing its breathtaking hikes, pristine national parks, incredible biking trails and luscious lakes and mountains. It serves as a reminder that indulging in low to no emissions adventures is not only possible, but crucial for preserving the beauty of the Southern Lakes area.

Our hope is that this can becomes the adventure buddy to all that explore the area, and serves as a reminder of Queenstown’s unique beauty and the importance of protecting it.

#4

Small Gods

Hexenhaus

Luke White

While thinking about what we could call our traditional Roggenbier I recalled good times in an old tavern named the Hexenhaus in the Alps. German for ‘witches house’, the Hexenhaus was a tavern filled with occult trappings and artefacts along with a couple of goats. A naive approach with a nod to medieval woodcuts seemed appropriate for my vision of a small witches house in an eerie forest of dead trees. The Kraft paper stock was carefully chosen as the closest thing I could get to goatskin parchment and a lot of thought went into finding the perfect typeface to communicate our story.

#5

Abandoned Brewery

Hazy 17

Aaron McKirdy

Honestly, it’s really hard work coming up with a uniquely engaging label time and time again. And THEN, just to add insult to injury, you’re asked to write about the “design inspiration”. But who actually cares? No avid beer drinker wants to read the pretentious ramblings of some marketing design wanker. We put a busted up toilet on our can. Why? Well, we could say it’s a lame “decent piss” pun — haha do ya get it? DO YA!? But truthfully, we did it cos we could. And nobody else would. NEVER SAY DIE.

#6

Sprig + Fern Brewing Co.

The G.O.A.T Doppelbock

Corey Harbrow

The G.O.A.T Doppelbock is Sprig + Fern’s most awarded beer, and as such we felt it deserved a design that better reflected it’s status as a multi-award-winning, premium quality product. In keeping with the ‘bock’ theme (German for goat), and the moniker of G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time), a bock head sits front and centre in a style inspired by the dark characters of Guillermo del Toro movies, with an air of mysticism and intrigue. The fonts selected reflect those of American bank notes, while the subdued colour palette of black, bronze and gold – complete with vintage embellishments, sparkles, crown and ‘multi award winning’ gold badge – tie together to form a cohesive concept and solidify the premium, luxury look and feel.

#7

Isthmus Brewing

Pineapple and Lime Sour

Dave Quinlan

Bold and bright colours, containing images of the fruit, minimal writing, metallic writing, able to be used as part of a series of releases so there can be multiple iterations with the same general design but different fruit and different colourway.

#8

b.effect Brewing Co

Hut People Stout

Lisa Nicole-Moes

The Southern alps are famous for their epic backcountry huts. We have used that as the inspiration for our Hut People stout. Whether you’re a hut person or not this straight up delicious stout will fill your boots after your next mission!

#9

Alibi Brewery

Ruru - Hazy Pale Ale

Logan Gubb

The story of Ruru revolves around our resident owl who lives in the wetlands of the Tantalus / Alibi Estate.
One day, as guests were strolling through the grounds, the owl, in a state of distress, flew out of the trees and collided with them before tumbling to the ground. The poor native bird had become entangled in the sticky seeds of the deadly Parapara tree, rendering him unable to fly. We quickly transported him to a native bird rescue center, where he was carefully cleaned and nursed back to health. Once recovered, he was released back into our wetlands, where he was joyfully reunited with his mate, and now happily resides.

The decision to feature this quirky tale on the back of our can came from our Head Brewer, Jody, who, on the early morning of brewing this beer, could hear our Ruru friend cheerfully calling out before sunrise.

#10

Behemoth Brewing Company

Victory at Churly's Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Porter

Nick Lurman

Behemoth is a very fun brand that offers a load of freedom when it comes to expressing itself. So, we could lean into Ballast Points distinctive use of skeletons, pirates and highly detailed artwork on this design to help amalgamate these 2 brands together almost seemlessly. The main inspiration pulled from Victory at Sea which was a part of the blend which.

Being able to reimagine a completely different art style than we usually use, and to just go a little crazy with depicting Churly as a zombie skeleton pirate captain. We also wanted to include the use of gold foil like effects in the label as this was a limited decadent beer to further elevate the design.