First, there are a TON of resources on the Interwebs that can help a fledgling picobrewer such as myself to address naming and labeling. For starters, there's the Beer Name Generator (yes, that's a hyperlink - click it to open it in a new window). The names are complicated and convoluted, but if you don't like the one it gives you, just smash the "Generate!" button to get another. If Manatee-Crackhouse Porter isn't your style, there's always Red Kwanzaa American Light Lager, Frisky Schwartzbier, or even Mothra's Unbefreakinglievable Amber Tribles Altbier. Do it often enough and soon you'll have ideas in your own head begin to form. For me, the BNG was responsible for the name I gave to my third beer - Dark Epiphany Irish Stout - the one I'll be drinking at this time tomorrow. Play with it, I'm sure it'll inspire you as it did me.
So whether you've used the BNG to come up with a name, or have a name already in mind that you really want to see on your beer, how do you take the next step if you're not artistically inclined? Believe it or not, there are pages that can help you generate labels on the fly. Here are a few of them:
Beer Labelizer - This site offers 12 basic label templates, each in 3 different colors, that can be customized easily with your own text and in a few cases graphics. 3 of the templates are available at no cost whatsoever, and for a small $5 donation you can use all of the templates with impunity. Printing and/or saving your labels as high-quality Jpegs are both supported. Nearly all of my first six beers, and many of the others, all sport labels designed at Beer Labelizer. (The author - Andy Biggs - also has a sister site for printing labels for jars of jam - Jam Labelizer. There are 5 basic designs, again in 3 colors each, but alas your Beer Labelizer membership does not carry over - it's another 5 bucks if you want to use everything. Still, the two templates that are available for free are still nice and simple. If you just want the beer to do the talking, this might be perfect for you.)
Beer Label Builder - Mindbogglingly simple to make text-based beer labels, though not very flexible. The site hopes you'll design a label and then order some via mail order, which of course you're free to do. Some of the designs, though uncomplicated, are still pretty nice. It all depends on whether this is your style or not.
Labeley - A java-based tool that you can use to combine several basic elements (shape, color, background texture, foreground graphic, ribbons, text, etc) to make some nice, or some fugly, labels. You can save up to 5 labels per day and then print them out on your own, or share them with friends. No fuss, no muss, no cost.
My Own Labels (Beer) - Another "design-and-ship" website. They give you about two-dozen basic designs, many of which can be modified on-screen, and several that also support uploading your own graphics. They seem to be geared more toward "event" brewing, wherein you brew up a batch of beer to give out to friends at a party or a wedding, and the on-screen depiction of the "final" label you come up with is of a lower resolution than what you get if you pay them to print and ship a sheet of them to you, but it's fun to play around with and brainstorm ideas for your own use. And you can do a screencap and then import that into your own graphic software if you want a starting point.
Labels On The Fly (Beer) - Yet another "design-and-ship" site. Their designs are much more simplistic than MOL, but in many ways they're just cleverer or more appealing. I counted 32 different base designs, each coming in 3 or 4 different sizes/shapes. That's quite a wide selection of starter labels imo.
These are just the first half-dozen tools I've come across - I am certain there are others. I've added links to Beer Labelizer and the Name Generator to my link list over in the toolbar. If you come across one that you like that I've not listed, please let me know.
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