In Collaboration With:
The Task:
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For the final task set for this year, we have been challenged with designing an anniversary edition of The Westwalls Brewing Company's first ever anniversary since opening last year in 2023.
This will consist of illustration artwork designed entirely by me that will be shown on various objects like T-shirts, keg badges, the cans that contain the brews themselves, mock ups of social media posts/stories, event schedule promotions, digital signings for in-house screens, and whatever else I may come up with to stir conversation about the 1 year anniversary celebration. |
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Beer Cans:
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When brainstorming ideas, I had given a lot of thought to what possible ideas I could tie into the 'celebration' and 'birthday' theming.
Eventually I decided on a few possible routes to take with the illustration;
- like beer being shown to have presents, party hats, and birthday cakes.
- A man posing as a beer mascot, with my own depiction of what that character would look like.
- A bar celebration with the birthday presents forming the number one.
- The Inside of a beer can showing presents, birthday cakes, and party hats. With a dynamic wrapped view of the inside of a can, with the front showing the top and the back showing the bottom.
Eventually I decided on a few possible routes to take with the illustration;
- like beer being shown to have presents, party hats, and birthday cakes.
- A man posing as a beer mascot, with my own depiction of what that character would look like.
- A bar celebration with the birthday presents forming the number one.
- The Inside of a beer can showing presents, birthday cakes, and party hats. With a dynamic wrapped view of the inside of a can, with the front showing the top and the back showing the bottom.
Initial Ideas & Thumbnails:
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When designing the thumbnails, I tried to keep in mind that a good amount of space will need to be kept for the labels and negative space usage.
I also kept to a graphic novel/pop-art style too, as that was what I felt worked best against the tin material of a beer can, leaving potential for shiny effects and reaction to light for the metal on the beer can materials.
I also kept to a graphic novel/pop-art style too, as that was what I felt worked best against the tin material of a beer can, leaving potential for shiny effects and reaction to light for the metal on the beer can materials.
Style Experimentation & Planning:
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For the style, I wanted to match something from last long ago in the last millennia, Particularly the golden age of comics and old marketing illustrations for items such as cigarettes, chocolate bars, etc.
Graphic Components:
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To give some style and identity to the details and requirements asked of me to add to the beer can's back and front. I decided to create speech bubbles, action onomatopoeia effect bubbles, and graphically interpreted presents to surround those details. These would be disclaimers, ingredients and tasting notes, as well as any potential allergen warnings.
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Results:
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Final Results (Labelled):
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Mockups:
Beer can:
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The key component of this task was the illustration to be wrapped around and shown on a beer can. My comic-book like design language I decided to utilise proved to be a challenge, yet one I feel fits very well. As the details and components to accompany the can are shown as speech bubbles, action exclamations, and more.
Then there is my character in The Kolsch Crusader; A very cheesy, 1960s comic-book that resembles a beer glass in the form of a superhero, as he surfs through the inside of the beer can. I found it effective as this practise was used in various products I saw as a child, such as Transform-a-snack.
Then there is my character in The Kolsch Crusader; A very cheesy, 1960s comic-book that resembles a beer glass in the form of a superhero, as he surfs through the inside of the beer can. I found it effective as this practise was used in various products I saw as a child, such as Transform-a-snack.
Keg Badge:
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Mockups:
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When creating the keg badges, I had tried to imagine how they would look on actual draught taps. I had to rearrange some elements of the initial designs to make them fit onto a circular shape, but I found the designs to fit well onto this format.
Digital Signage:
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For digital, in-house signage. I had taken inspiration from the doctors, dentists and stores I would go to regularly as a frame of reference. As those establishments had revolving slideshows of imagery that was related to the company attached to the respective place.
Social Media Posts:
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When imagining social media posts for the event, I simply screens hotted an assortment of both computer browser and phone app renditions of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
T-Shirts:
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For T-Shirt designs, I had made it a point to make use of the shirt's form. This way I could wrap elements around it and create the effect of designs and beer-like imagery.
Party Favours/Memorabilia Mockups:
As a way to further imagine how the event would play out; I created a event schedule with some imaginative activities that would be done throughout the day.
Party Favours/Memorabilia Mockups:
Digital Development:
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When developing my illustration, I decided to primarily use Clip Studio Paint, as I am the most familiar with that software than I am with any other software. Coupled alongside my XP Pen drawing tablet with it's own screen to compare to a larger monitor.
However, when I was in the university, I did make use of the Mac computers that had photoshop set up on them, and cleaned up any graphical effects there.
However, when I was in the university, I did make use of the Mac computers that had photoshop set up on them, and cleaned up any graphical effects there.
Requirements:
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Effective Graphic/Illustration Work In Food & Drink Packaging:
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Beer Can Research:
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Typography:
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Typeface/Text Guidelines: |
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Beer Flavours:
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Flavour Tagline Experimentation
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Fonts:
- Skia Black - Krung the ep - Lucida Grande Bold - STIX size bold - Kohinoor - Zapf Dingbats - Palatino Bold - Impact - Kefa Bold - Real Virtue - Comic Girls |
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My Chosen Tagline:
After a lot of brainstorming and reconsideration, my initial tagline was to be 'Happy New Beer'; but was ultimately changed to 'One Beer Old' after a session feedback with Dwayne had informed me that something closer to a birthday themed message would work better than a New Years eve one.
I chose 'One Beer Old' since it is a play on words for 'One Year Old', just with 'Beer' in place of 'year'. It also describes the company's status perfectly as it is quite literally one year old, and in fact a beer brewery. The idea all along was to make my tagline be as blatantly apparent to what it was trying to describe, as well as add in a bit of clever humour to boot.
I chose 'One Beer Old' since it is a play on words for 'One Year Old', just with 'Beer' in place of 'year'. It also describes the company's status perfectly as it is quite literally one year old, and in fact a beer brewery. The idea all along was to make my tagline be as blatantly apparent to what it was trying to describe, as well as add in a bit of clever humour to boot.
Keg Badge Research:
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When researching Keg badges, it was important to look specifically at just circular, 81mm diameter shaped designs.
The beer taps were also important to keep in mind, as they were to be placed in front of them, and be easy to read from a distance as a means to test if they could fit properly onto draught taps. |
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Photography:
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Since we were advised to take our own photography, I went out and took some photographs of Bitts Park, as that was my venue of choice for the celebration. I had tried to get the best angles that would show the majority of the field that I had in mind for the celebration, as it is hosted for Bonfire Night every year there, with fireworks, a bonfire, and purchasable memorabilia.
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Marketing Research:
For marketing, I wanted to research what certain aspects of planning an event, and picturing how it would look like, would look like.
I searched for examples of t-shirts, in-house signage branding, fliers and pamphlets, posters and much more. This was to ensure I was on the right path to understanding how a celebration event is properly set up. |
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Carlisle Landmark Inspiration:
When considering my concepts for the illustration, I wanted to integrate the famous landmarks of Carlisle into the drawing process. I essentially took whatever aspects of the aforementioned landmarks were most memorable, and turned them into a silhouettes to be seen in my illustration's background.
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Tools/Methods Used:
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Pre-existing branding for the WWBC:
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Key Points Of WWBC's Branding:
Before starting the task, I did some research into the brand we were providing visuals for, as it seemed important to. fully understand the visual standard that was expected and previously provided by the brewery.
When looking up the branding and examples, I made it a priority to keep the colour palette to beer-adjacent Pantones, with rounded simplistic shapes. |
Influential Illustrators for this task:
Steve Ditko
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Perhaps my most influential point of reference for this task was Steve Ditko and his legacy art for marvel comics during what was heralded as 'The Golden Age' of comic books. His work ranges from Spiderman, Captain America, Batman, Captain 3D, and many others.
His style in particular inspired me to take on a vintage comic book art style, and study what made that style work. The style itself was chosen because I felt it matches with the predominantly male demographic of beer.
His style in particular inspired me to take on a vintage comic book art style, and study what made that style work. The style itself was chosen because I felt it matches with the predominantly male demographic of beer.
O'Galop
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Marius Rossillon, otherwise known in the illustration scene as O'Galop, does work for advertisement and branding. I looked at O'Galop's work after a lecture with Tony, as it caught my eye that he designed the iconic Michelin man, which then led me to discovering his other illustration work. I also chose to look into his work for his use of graphics and solid colour, making some very pleasing compositions that are very easy to look at.
Chari Pere
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Chari Pere is best known for her work on Redbull's advertisements claiming that if you were to drink Redbull. it would "Give you wings". Her work is very versatile, as she doesn't just keep to one style, and experiments accordingly to whatever project she takes on. What connects my project to hers, is the fact that I too, am experimenting with a much different style, colour palette, and graphical finish to what I usually do, which is more painterly and darker in colours, brushes, etc.