Before I was a writer, I worked in advertising – and enjoyed it for a time. I was fascinated by the idea of brands: originally a simple mark of ownership, they evolved into carriers of additional meaning. At first, they were symbols of trust, of consistency and quality. Every tin you buy with a Heinz logo on it, every Cadbury’s chocolate bar, is going to taste the same as the last one. If we like that taste, we remain loyal to most things that carry that logo.

After Bass became the UK’s first registered trade mark, beer brands developed certain stylistic conventions that remained unchanged for most of the 20th century. In the 21st, craft beer tore up the rulebook of how successful beer branding was supposedly done. It set itself directly in opposition to conventional design to prove that it wasn’t part of the mainstream. That led to an extraordinary explosion of creativity. Not all of it works as successful commercial branding, but most of it is gorgeous to look at. And this branding revolution has affected the whole beer market, inspiring even staid mainstream brands to rediscover the craft and art of design.

In this event, I'm going to show lots of lovely pictures of beer cans and bottles, talk about why beer is central to the history of branding more widely, and discuss how, through visual design, craft and mainstream beer are learning valuable lessons from each other. Then we'll have a chat about whether you're influenced by all this or not when you choose a beer to drink.

Beer: Great to drink, great to look at!

For our final beer case, we've done a deal with the 12oz bottleshop to put together a case of beers from breweries featured in the book. The discount on these beers is already built into the price: worth £25 individually, the box is selling for £20 plus P+P. https://www.12ozbottleshop.com/product/pete-brown-book-club-beer-by-design-6-pack/1380?cs=true&cst=custom