This piece is a set of two beer can labels that I designed for fictional beers brewed by Pistols Brewery. The goal of the project was to create two fictional beers and subsequent labels that showcase the uniqueness and charm that the city of Ottawa presents. In addition to designing the labels themselves, I also made two social media video ads promoting each of the hypothetical beers.
My first beer concept was titled Armed Ale. It showcases Ottawa’s Governor General’s campus and the deep militaristic Canada has as a member of the Commonwealth. The can design depicts the fence and gate that surrounds the campus, as well as a royal guard to symbolize the changing of the guard ceremony. The second concept is called Bytowne Brew. It is a beer that focuses on Ottawa’s Byward Market. It features many iconic Ottawa skyline pieces as silhouettes in the background as well as a sign that mimics those found in the market.
With any physical static design project like this, the first step is always conceptualising. Lots of sketching and throwing stuff together in different programs led me to the designs I ended up going with. I knew pretty early on what elements of the city I wanted my beers to showcase, but getting them into a medium that I felt reflected the story well took some time. Once I had my basic concepts, I refined them until I was satisfied, worked in the necessary legal text and rendered mockups using Cinema4D.
There are not too many things I would change with these cans. I'm generally pretty happy with them. There are two things I would tweak slightly however. I think that some of the text is a bit cramped, especially on the Armed Ale can. If I had to fit the same text in french to make the can of bilingual, I would have to do a lot of rejigging. I also think the videos are not perfect. Maybe it’s my render settings or just the limitations of using the Cinema4D free trial, but I think the renders look a little unprofessional.
During this project, I learned how important it is to make sure you don’t design yourself into a corner. Often you’ll want to add all these fun little details that seem to add a lot more complexity to a design, but that can often be a bad thing. Good design work has breathing room that lets the viewer’s eye focus more on the main principles. If you make the design too complex, it will also be more difficult to add necessary content later.
