• NEW BREWERY WORK •

• NEW BREWERY WORK •

I feel very fortunate to be able to work in an industry that I care a great deal about. My graphic design and illustration has been associated with quite a few breweries over the years and Grafters Craft Brewery in Lincolnshire is one of my newer clients. 

They have some great brews and I was very pleased to be able to give them a new breath of life with some fresh branding. So from designing the new logo and then implementing that across all the brand new clips was most satisfying.

Please feel free to click and enlarge these images but remember that they are all very strictly copyright. ©

• 2 NEW BEERS •

• 2 NEW BEERS •

Here are just 2 of the new beer clip and label designs from this month's output.

These 2 are poles apart - almost literally. One for traditional cask beer market in the heart of the Uk. The other down under in the fast growing craft beer arena of New Zealand.

The ever inventive Golden Eagle Brewery always seem to catch the flavour of the moment with their delicious new brews. This is not first hand experience unfortunately, but garnered from the many favourable comments on beer drinking social networks such as Untappd.

Next up in the blog I'll be able to reveal the fun project that I've been working on for the last 12 months. All is about to be published and revealed. Watch this space.

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•CREATING MOLTEN LAVA •

•CREATING MOLTEN LAVA •

For this new beer clip for Golden Eagle Brewery I needed some convincing fiery lava.

I remembered a trick I'd used a few years ago, when needing to set some gravestones 'on fire' for  CD cover. The shadows between rocks, cracks in rocks etc if inverted and then filed with yellows and oranges took on a realistic kind of molten lava effect.

So I picked a stock photo of cracked mud - picture 1 - and ran radial blur over it to 'explode' it a little.

Then after inverting the photo - picture 2 - and adding reds and oranges into the cracks with an overlay glow it soon started to take on the feel of glowing coals and cracking lava flows.

In picture 3, I've used some 'noise' in a channel and exploded that with the same radial blur and sprayed extra yellows and oranges over the lava using this noise explosion as the mask. Picture 4 shows smoke that was used judiciously to overlay certain areas and give a smouldering, steaming effect.

Picture 5 shows the various type effects that were blended together and then overlaid onto the lava artwork, some of the yellow cracks from the mud photo can be seen overlaying the text.

In the final 2 pictures you can see how I arrived at the final beer clip design. The addition of a distant volcano, another lava field at the bottom and it's complete. One of the hops used in the brew is called Jade. Jade, and indeed New Zealand, were created by volcanic action hence the monumental name.

Please click on these images to enlarge and inspect closely, but remember they are all very strictly copyright. ©

•PHOTO REALISTIC BREWERY POSTERS •

•PHOTO REALISTIC BREWERY POSTERS •

These 2 posters were part of a set illustrated for Wentworth Brewery.

I've stuck the Stout clip on there to show how these 'blank' bar posters can be used in conjunction with new brews which will be released throughout the year.

Hopefully these delightful brews will whet your thirst and tempt you to track one down. And I promise you, if you do, you'll not be disappointed by the wonderful hand crafted full bodied taste.

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•BEER BEER AND MORE BEER

•BEER BEER AND MORE BEER

I really enjoy the design work I produce for the rosta of breweries that are onboard with me at Hot Frog Graphics.

It feeds my need for graphic design, shows I can do more than illustrate - plus I get to sample loads of fantastic ales, stouts, lagers and ciders.

Here are a few examples from this summer and autumn, featuring Golden Eagle Brewery and Eagle versus Dog Brewery (new logo), both in New Zealand, and another design that features an eagle - from Wentworth Brewery nearer to home. Please click the image to enlarge and remember that they are all strictly copyright. ©

•NEW BREWERY BRANDING•

•NEW BREWERY BRANDING•

Another couple of micro breweries joined the Hot Frog brewing portfolio last month. He's one of them, the exciting sounding Broxbourne Brewery - home of the crafty badger!

I tried out several run of the mill - almost cliched, ideas to get the creative juices rolling. I wasn't getting anywhere meaningful but it's often useful to exorcise the banal from the equation in this way, before you can 'see through' to the more promising ideas.

Then I had this vision of the the Moretti beer label with the old guy blowing the froth off his fresh glass of beer. I coupled this with a cheeky badger and sketched out the character and hey presto, Brox, the crafty badger was born.

Broxbourne and their sister brewery have some very strong ales in their repertoire and here's hoping we'll have a long and fruitful future together. Cheers to that.

Please remember that all these images are strictly copyright. ©