How a Mission-Driven Brewery uses Packaging Design to Promote Social Change
Changemaker Double IPA. Now here’s a beer after my own social-change-making heart, and I’ll double down on what Imagine Nation Brewing Co. is trying to accomplish here with the packaging design on its beer can label.
It reminds me of the timeless label from Dr. Bronner’s (All-One!), updated for 2021. Its use of the label to deliver a longer-form narrative is super intriguing. The overall message of the circular design is tough to capture in an image, at least for comprehension of all that’s going on with the label, so I’m going to transcribe it here, along with supporting images.
This transcription involved a lot of hunting and pecking, picking up the can, reading a line, and then typing it; picking up the can again, taking off my glasses (readability of the design isn’t all that it could be for an older guy and probably for many younger), then typing in another line of copy and so on. Here’s my attempt at bringing these powerful messages to those who are interested. While it’s absent the context of design and the beautiful colors and images, I found reading it to be immensely inspirational.
BEHAVIORS
(Conflict Parties: Actors)
Goal: Stop Violence Skill Needed: Nonviolence
CONFLICT
Visible/Invisible
(Conscious Level)
1. Survival
(Simply to live)
2. Well Being
(Something to live from)
3. Identity
(Something to live for)
4. Freedom
(The choice in how to meet the other 3)
UNCONSCIOUS BEHAVIORS
(Basic Needs)
CONFLICT
Unconscious level
SOCIAL CHANGE
CONTRADICTIONS
(Conflict structure: Relationships)
Goal: Deal with Root Causes
Skill needed: Creativity
Gender
Men vs Women vs Nonbinary
Environmental
Humans vs Earth
Class
Political — Economic — Military — Culture
Nation
Dominant vs Dominated
Geography
Center vs Periphery
Color of Skin
Light vs Dark
Lifestyle
Normal vs Deviant
Age
Old vs Middle vs Young
“Transform relationships
from inequality to equality,
from power to asymmetry
to power symmetry,
from fragmentation
to integration,
& from marginalization
to participation.”
UNCONSCIOUS CONTRADICTIONS
(Deep Structure / Social Fault Lines)
CULTURAL CHANGE
Attitudes
(Conflict Culture: Meanings)
Goal: Depolarization
Skill Needed: Empathy
1. Dualism
(Simplifying into only 2 options)
→ Transform into Holistic thinking
2. Manichaeism
(Believe in Good vs Evil)
→ Transform into Yin/Yang
3. Armageddon
(Believe in use of violence to solve problems)
→ Transform into Nonviolent Conflict Transformation
4. Chosenness
(American Exceptionalism)
→ Transform into standing with the world
5. Glory
(Building culture around war)
→ Transform into culture of peace
6. Trauma
(From slavery, genocide and endless war)
→ Transform into healing and social cohesion
UNCONSCIOUS ATTITUDES
(Deep Culture)
“There must exist a paradigm,
a practical model of social change
that includes an understanding of
ways to transform consciousness
that are linked to efforts
to transform structures.”
- bell hooks
The nation’s first microbrewery + center for
community transformation. Imagine Nation fuels
social change in Missoula, Montana, and Beyond.
3500+ Community Events Hosted
500+ Organizations Supported
25% of Profits Donated Back
350,000 Face Shields Built in Time of Covid-19
“WE ARE BECAUSE OF EACH OTHER”
