Graphic Arts

I’m not sure I have an identifiable design aesthetic. Some of what I do is inspired, some miscellaneous, some serve a client, a brand, or work as a user interface or user experience element. Most of my work is a playful combination of photography, graphic design and vector graphics. All of it is fun to create.

Beer Labels

My wife and I have been brewing beer since 1995. Our first labels were created with a now extinct application called SuperPaint before moving on to Photoshop. The question is always – which will turn out better the label or the actual beer!

Spice Season

Description.

Everything and the kitchen sink went into this label! This beer has nutmeg, cloves, all spice, ginger and pumpkin in it, but that’s still fewer ingredients than what’s in the actual label!

Starting with the background: it is a photograph (which you can find in the Art Shots collection) of a fall field, it’s had some photoshop filtering applied and a dark gradient over top of that.

Next, we have the pumpkin, which was created in Photoshop, but then exported to my iPad and opened in the Procreate app where I further illustrated it. The detail on the stem and edges of the pumpkin, the white teeth and eyes – all done in Procreate.

And of course I’ve used Linus from the Peanuts comics to create a spoof on the “Great Pumpkin” storyline from the Peanuts Halloween Special.

Following all this, is further blending and overlaying of grass on the bottom edge of the pumpkin (after re-exporting from my iPad and back into Photoshop). The overall effect is fun and funny and not meant to be a political statement.

The “K&D” logo appears on all our beer labels. I created it based on an old photograph of Daine and I in front of one of Diane’s quilts.

 

Information.

  • Title : Spice Season
  • Style : Pumpkin Spice Ale
  • Main Font : Blackmoor LET
  • Medium : Graphic Design, Photography, Photoshop, Apple iPad, Apple Pencil, Procreate