IPA #4 Can Design for Collective Arts Brewing
Photo by: Brian Roberts
Collective Arts Brewing has an open call for artists every four months, and creators world-wide are encouraged to enter pre-existing work, mainly, or new work if they so choose. Themes are open-ended with an emphasis on finding visually striking pieces that will look great on their various products for retail. There is no entry fee and artists are compensated for their work along with some usage fees depending on the use of the artwork for future event signage, tee-shirts, posters etc. Giving the artist proper credit for their work is also important to the company, with the artists name appearing on the cans or bottles bearing their work.
Development Process
I had an idea for a piece already in progress and decided to enter it on completion. This image represents one of my earliest attempts at working a symmetrical look into my style, and before I started using the iPad where my drawing program had a built-in mirror function, I had to do it by hand with pencil and paper along with a Lightbox for tracing.
My more abstract work gives me an opportunity to add some characters that have become part of my "visual language" for lack of a better term. Characters wearing space helmets, fish and bird-like creatures along with fish fins are some of the elements that I may use in constructing images, almost in a lego-like fashion. So for this piece I leaned on two characters wearing space helmets that seem to be opposing each other. Also, it's part of the rules to name your entry, so I called this piece, "Brothers".
The open call worked out well in the end, as my design was chosen as one of the winners. So, not only was it chosen, but it was chosen to be printed exclusively on the India Pale Ale #4 can of which only four blends are released each year.
A tee-shirt design was Also released and became one of their more popular garment releases to date. Collective Arts makes a point to print the name of the artist on the back of the shirt.
