30 Minute Beer Label

In terms of client work, my biggest jobs have been beer labels for a local micro-brewery. While I've learned a ton from each one, they aren't in style that comes naturally to me. Bobby Chui recommends pretending the you've gotten your dream job, and working on that while you're in between projects. This will keep you sharp, and build a portfolio for exactly the type of work that you want to do. In that vein of thinking, my partners and I started doing the 30 minutes beer label challenge.

They give me a made up beer name and I have 30 minutes to conceive and execute a beer label appropriate for that brew. It's too short a time to worry about gather perfect reference or being super finicky. It forces me to work fast and loose and take chances. Some turn out bad, but there are good ones in there too.

Here is one of my favorites. It's the "Olde Man River" Irish Red.

I did the line work with a No 5 brush and india ink, and then added ink wash over it to get a little more gradient. Lastly I threw it into sketchbook and added a little color. Nothing too fancy. A muted, warm, monochrome color scheme could work well with the image and the taste of a red ale.

I hope to do more of these in the future. It's always nice to let your hair down and throw caution to the wind sometimes.

Cheers!
-DC