By signcraft
Posted on Monday, April 27th, 2026
Once upon a time, most beer was brewed locally—much like today’s microbreweries—rather than by big mega-breweries. Those breweries of yesteryear had unique names and unique labels for the products. Their vintage beer labels—especially those of long-gone Michigan breweries—are prized by Mark Casey, a semi-retired sign painter from the Detroit, Michigan, area.
Over the past few years, he’s tracked down and painted dozens of those labels as large panels, using the sign painting skills that he developed over a lifetime.
“There were a lot of small breweries across Michigan back in the early 1900s,” says Mark. “They’re all out of business now, of course, but the labels were beautiful. To me, many of them just cry out to be hand painted. I suspect many were originally designed by sign painters.”
He’s painted them on overlaid plywood panels from 3-by-4-ft. to 4-by-8-ft. in size, working from small photos of the original labels. He uses the grid method to enlarge and draw them, then makes hand-drawn pounce patterns and hand paints them.
Take a look at this sampling of his work in “Vintage beer labels hold loads of inspiration”!
