WHAT’S BETTER THAN CONTRIBUTING TO A LOCAL BREWERY:
STILL UNKNOWN, BUT THIS WAS MY FIRST “CLIENT” EVER!
CREATIVE PROCESS
BEFORE WE CONTINUE, ARE YOU 21 YEARS AND OLDER?
Just kidding! On this site your not required to purchase any alcohol, however if old enough I do advice to crack open a cold one, sit back and enjoy my process for the production of one of my favorite types of design and Illustration…
As I was going through my last year of college, one of my classes was Senior Project; a class were we had to bring to life all of our knowledge since freshman year, for an accumulation of 3 brand design projects. At first I was unsure how to kick off my research, that’s when my professor approached me and told me about a friend of his: Owner of Old Tascosa Brewery, that with 10+ years in the business, still did not have a proper packaging for his famous: “TumbleWheat” American Ale.
Just like that I got in touch with Matt Welch, we talked down a few ideas, had a few pints, and the rest although not history (sounds a bit too harsh). Just continue down and look at the Creative Process.
BEER #1: INITIAL TASTE (MMM)… LET’S LOOK FOR INSPIRATION
I would always go on my Instagram feed and most of what I saw was illustration being used in very several ways… posters, zines, etc. But nothing stuck with me as much as packaging design, back in my college years that’s everything I dreamt of doing — getting out of the boring routine of beginner lessons (although I needed that) to finally get my hands to do something fancy and abstract like this. Like anything, I did not know what I was getting into at first, so I did something that was always advice to me: “Go around online or out in the world and give yourself 30-60 mins of browsing- just random browsing different assets that could contribute to your project inspiration, that’s how this initial mood board came to be.
BEER #2: A FEW MORE SIPS… LET THAT FLAVOR KICK IN, IT ALL STARTS IN A SKETCH
An idea was born, after looking around for quite a while, I had finally landed on an aesthetic that represented Matt’s goals and vision for Tumble-Wheat. We needed to represent the “wild west”, but from a unique point of view… Before Amarillo grew to what it is today (Texas Panhandle biggest city) back in the 19th century Tascosa or know today as “Old Tascosa” was the main hub for this area of the state! Midpoint between Forth Worth and Denver, it inhabited the biggest railroad stop in the trip.
Somehow, with that information, and the factional stereotype of a cowboy and its horse arriving in town, I forced myself to start creating a sketch of different scenes, choosing colors that would go with it as well as create a narrative that would not only sell a beer but also tell a story… The story of Old Tascosa!
BEER #3: ALRIGHT, ITS GETTING LIT… WE HAVE THE CHANCE TO ADD COLOR AND LINE WORK
After several sketches later and a lot of erasing and going over each sketch on and off again (yes I am a bit of a perfectionist), the time had come for me to make a final decision on which sketch would make it to the final label and therefore was ready for the “inking” and coloring process!
… it was just so hard! I could’t just choose one, they all had come out great and started making me second guess myself as to what would do the job better. It’s a perfect time to explain a little about the colors, you see Matt, really did not have anything that represented the brand besides the Old Tascosa logo in black and white (seen above). Pretty much it gave me the opportunity to develop my own way of telling the story via color, and for me all I could mostly think off was dust… But it works out doesn’t, okay next you will see them all:
BEER #4: AFTER A FEW BEERS… YOU ARE HAVING FUN, YOU START TO FINALIZE THE PACKAGING
Like I told you guys on beer numero 4, I had already chosen a final illustration that most represented the wild west and Old Tascosa - mudged together, all I needed now was to add the final procedure of the label making, well final steps in better words.
Fonts were chosen accordingly to make the label information “POP” as well as that boring disclaimer we all know about on the left side of the label.
Colors had been selected to go with the flow of the main illustration, and that if ever separated from its other part — it could still tell a story by its own.
Let’s talk about that custom-made font for: Tumble-Wheat which represents an icon of the wild west, which is pretty much it, simple, to the point, but it really works as part of the label and later why not a full custom font!
It’s time now to discuss the next asset of this packaging campaign: The box container like any other proper beer label you find in the store:
The design was created for the sides of the box which is a symmetrical style to go around (top-bottom) square based design creating a 3-D rectangle shape!
It’s also notable to mention that the design follows the label illustration, however as you would do in a series of pictures: drawn from a different angle.
All other assets already included in the main can label, where also added in this new illustration, with new type to represent the brewery, etc.
Of course there had to be space to add what the box contained inside which can be found on each side on the bottom right.
Both the top & bottom had a really limited design only showcasing a few illustration elements in the bottom and information on top.
BEER #5: THIS SHOULD BE YOUR LAST ONE… YOU HAD A LONG HAUL, IT ENDS WITH THE PACKAGING
Okay here you can actually see what the packaging looks like in both assets: Beer can and Beer Box!
A mockup is always a great opportunity, that showcases the potential of a project without going blindly into production, and it’s fairly cheap too! These two mockup’s are results of a tutorial on Skill Share on how to create astonishing mockups for packaging, as an example! But anyone can do it, there are countless tutorials on youtube for free… Just happens at the time I had skillshare handy.
BEER #6: SERIOUSLY? LAST ONE… YOU HAD A BIT EXTRA TO DRINK, LET’S USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
Well you guessed it right… last phase was just not enough! There was a lot of brainstorming and moments where I would look at it, & then into space, look at it one more time, and then finally deciding that there was something else there that I could use or create a separate design. That is how the idea of other assets started:
• An ad that could play on both digitally like tv/youtube commercial | and physically like a billboard on the side of the highway.
• Two possible designs for the beer hops used in all of the assets: A sticker and a rackcard.
So far that’s all the separate assets I have cooking but like always Ill keep you updated in case the desire for this brand continues.
