Do you remember your first sip of beer?
No not really, a lot of sips followed, maybe that’s why I don’t remember?
All I remember is that old lady and her snack bar, right next to a primary school where we used to skate, who used to sell booze to 12 year old’s. Ha, kudos old lady, you made our youth.
Do you work differently when designing for screen printing?
Actually not, since I prefer to work with less colours and I always try to keep things simple. Most of the time when I am painting canvas or walls I am working without outlines, when working on screen prints I prefer outlines. Maybe that’s the only difference.
Are their any beer labels out there, which you particularly like?
Most labels are crap but there are plenty of great ones out there for sure.
I travel a lot so its great to see the difference in aesthetic of all these countries.
Here’s a short list of some I like:
Greece: Mythos, nice and funky type for a beer label.
Portugal: SuperBock, funny name for sure. In German it means something like you really are enthusiastic about something. In this case drinking beer.
Germany: Augustiner Edelstoff, a nice old fashioned label. But also Bier Bier or 5,0. Both very different from usual labeling. Just plain type, thats it. Both are very cheap, just slick design. I like that somehow.
US: PBR, I don’t know why, somehow I like the look. Brooklyn lager is a good one as well.
Poland: Tyskie and Zywiec. Both have the same vibe. Seems to be classic polish design.
Austria: Stiegl. Very hard old English type, looks nice on their cans.
I’ll stop here but the list goes on and on.
What was your initial thought processes behind your fictional beer label, did you have something already visually in mind or did the concept come first?
I’m a big fan of japanese culture and do japanese related illustrations from time to time. I wanted to come up with something in the style of old matchbox designs and old japanese beer labels
But still wanted to mix it with my weird and twisted stuff. In this case I had something visually in mind before coming up with the concept,normally I work otherwise.
If you could drink one beer for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I prefer polish or Czech beer. I think Tyskie would be my choice. But that’s just for the moment. My beer taste changes from time to time.
Beer labels have a rich visual history, why do you think art and beer have coexisted for so long?
I don’t know but there must be a reason why most artists enjoy a cold beer from time to time:) Sometimes it helps to be creative, sometimes it helps to just forget all the bullshit and having a night out. Art and beer work hand in hand, there’s nothing better for me than painting a wall in the sun with my friends and having some cold brews.
In the Ukraine where people hardly spoke English, they called beer “The universal translator”. They were right, it made our conversations at least a bit easier.
