People typically think of cans and bottles as common components of beer packaging, but most people don’t immediately think of Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene, or BOPP, as a key component.

We recently sat down with Matt Tanaka, founder and CEO of branding and design firm Stout Collective, to discuss the role of BOPP in beer packaging.

We also asked Tanaka about the inspiration for the BOPP Beer and Design Conference, which is hosted by Stout Collective. The third annual BOPP conference will take place on September 18 and 19 in Chicago.

“From a material standpoint, BOPP is really fun because it gives designers a big playground to work with,” Tanaka explained. “An object like a can or a bottle is already challenging to design for but also pretty limiting in space. When you give a designer the chance to manipulate texture or play with different substrates, that really let’s their design shine.”

As for the inspiration behind the BOPP Beer and Design Conference, Tanaka said the thought process at Stout Collective was: “If we hosted a conference in an incredibly specific niche where it was a design conference about beer as opposed to a beverage industry conference where they had some things about design, it would allow us to go way more in depth on these topics.”

Additionally, the conference was seen as a way to pull together into one place the talented packaging designers and illustrators that Stout Collective works with routinely but are scattered across the country.

That first conference was a hit and explains why the conference is still going strong today.

“It was an incredibly inspiring time. We had some in-depth conversations and really got to see some behind-the-scenes stuff with our presenters who were giving examples of their own branding and design within the beverage space,” Tanaka noted.

To learn more about the role of BOPP in beer packaging and about the BOPP Beer and Design Conference, check out the full interview here.

Listen to the full podcast interview below to learn more.