How Breweries & Distilleries Help Promote Artist's Creativity on Bottles & Cans

Take a stroll past the beer coolers in any liquor or grocery store and you’re likely to see vibrant colors and intricate designs adorning the cans that line the shelves. Gone are the days of a simple logo on an aluminum can. Instead, breweries are commissioning artists to design their labels and cans, or are designing them in-house, to try and set themselves apart from the others. And there’s a lot to set apart from: according to the Brewers Association, there were more than 8,700 craft breweries in the U.S. in 2020, and that figure doesn’t take into account imports that are sold stateside.

Collective Arts Brewing

When Collective Arts Brewing out of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada launched in 2013, co-founders Matt Johnson and Bob Russell set out to create a brewery that, on top of crafting quality beer, could ignite the creativity of others by developing a unique platform for emerging artists and musicians. “From the very beginning, Collective Arts saw their bottles - now cans - as a vehicle to spread creativity and inspire craft drinkers,” says Toni Shelton, director of brand marketing & communications for Collective Arts Brewing. To date, more than 2,000 artists from 40 different countries have been featured on their labels.

Every three months a call for art is issued, and up to 2,000 entries by artists from around the world are typically submitted for consideration. Once they’re culled, a Series Jury comprised of experts from the worlds of beer, art, and music makes their selections of artists whose works will appear on Collective Arts’ cans and bottles. “Art is subjective! So we want to make sure our curator panels are composed of a diverse group of people that bring a broad range of perspectives to the table,” says Shelton. “When it comes to selecting pieces, our jurors only see the artwork alone, no names or further details are associated with the pieces to keep the process neutral, non-discriminatory, and inclusive for all. “We don’t give our curators guidelines of any kind,” she adds. “We want them to base their decisions purely on the pieces that stand out to them.”

While there isn’t a set number of artists’ entries selected each series, there can be up to 50 unique pieces, depending upon how many of Collective Arts’ products are in the market. “[The art that appears on] our gin bottles works a bit differently in that they are commissioned pieces that change with each batch or new innovation release,” says Shelton.

An Artist’s Opportunity

Art by Lawren Alice, photo courtesy of Collective Arts

Lawren Alice, a Philadelphia-based artist, muralist, and curator, was commissioned to design the artwork that appears on Collective Arts’ new Lavender and Jupiter Gin. Alice worked with Collective Arts in the past, having painted a mural for them during Philadelphia’s Beer Week 2019, chosen as one of the artists for the Series 13 cider labels in early-2000, and guest curating the Series 16 label open call. “Getting to design one of Collective Arts' special limited gin bottles has sort of been of the highlight of my (very new) artistic career, and I'm so grateful to them for taking the chance on someone so new and emerging,” says Alice. “The experience of working with Collective Arts has been awesome - they're such an incredible company run by a group of extremely friendly and wonderful folks.

“I think the coolest thing about the whole opportunity so far is that because I'm located in Philadelphia and Collective Arts are based out of Canada, my work has now been presented in a whole new country and in the hands and homes of folks I probably would never have never been able to reach otherwise,” she continues.

That reach helps artists grow, too.

“Since Collective Arts really does right by their artists and very clearly prints their artists' name and credits on both the paper label and in the actual bottle design, I've gotten some other fantastic opportunities that have come about as a result of folks seeing my work and name on the bottles,” says Alice. She adds that she’s recently been commissioned to paint a Canadian musician's electric guitar that she’s “really excited about!”

Woven Water Brewing Company

Not all breweries that feature art on their cans have a reach like Collective Arts’, however.

In Tampa, Woven Water Brewing Company opened its doors for to-go orders in late-August 2020, and the tasting room opened mid-October. Though the brewery is serving locals for the time being through its tasting room, art is still a big part of its identity. “It’s such a creative market in the first place, so you need to set yourself apart from everybody else,” says Eric Childs, co-founder of Woven Water who also oversees the brewery’s marketing and design. “I want to set us apart, and that’s the toughest part.”

Speaking to Woven Water’s logo, Childs says that he and the team wanted to make sure it was something that would be easily recognizable and something that explains itself; the upside-down triangle in the logo is the symbol for water. “Even when you’re small, you never know how large you’re going to grow,” explains Childs. “You can paint yourself into a corner if you have a complicated logo.”

When it came time to design Woven Water’s beer cans, Childs used his 25 years of design experience and conceptualized designs that resonate with the beers’ names. Take Photonic, for example. He says that the team came up with the name of their blurry IPA, and he backed into a design idea from there. “I found an actual symbol for a photonics laser,” says Childs. “The wave that you see, that spirals and goes around, and the colors were a similar approach, at different levels.”

Woven Water recently released Relic, a lactose-free margarita gose with blackberry, mango, and a touch of lime. Childs chose an Aztec/Mayan-inspired theme for the can, “and went from there. It’s always going to be tough as a designer, everything needs to look different now. Good branding and good beer, it’s better to have both,” he adds. “If you can’t [have both], at least have one.”

Beer, SpiritsSusan B BarnesSeptember 23, 2021travelComment