Hey y’all!
For this project, I’m going to create some beer can labels based on the dogs I’ve had in my life.

Ezekiel Imperial Stout (for my boyfriend’s sweet and goofy black lab, Easy)
Pepper Pilsner (for my boyfriend’s shy and tightly-wound brown mutt)
Lucky Hefeweisen (for my parent’s West-Highland terrier)
Skipper Extra Pale Ale (my childhood Jack-russell terrier)

I was thinking of calling my “brewery” Dog House Brewing Company, but I will probably be brainstorming more ideas.

I live in Austin, Texas so a lot of my inspiration for creating a beer label are the iconic packaging designed by some famous designers from the area (Helms Workshop and Simon Walker). Most of them are very bold and are careful not to crowd the can or be too busy.

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 1 - student project

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 2 - student project

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 3 - student project

I also really like these cans. I love the subtle elements at the top that bring the cans together.

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 4 - student project

I also want to incorporate illustrations of the dogs, but I’m thinking that they will be in 1 or 2 colors to keep things simple. Kendrick Kidd did a great job illustrating a dog on one of his beer can labels:

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 5 - student project

Here are some brainstorming and rough sketches I’ve done so far.

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 6 - student project

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 7 - student project

For my project I think I want to design a 16oz rather than a 12oz can. Finding the right design demensions proved to be difficult for a first time packaging designer like me!

I managed to find some packaging catalogs online that show the dimensions in a really weird way.

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 8 - student project

It took me a long time to figure out that a diameter of "211" is 2 and 11/16 inches. So there was some math involved but I have a good idea of what size the can will be, so I made a quick composition in illustrator with the Government warning, Size/ACV, and a fake barcode. I printed this out on a few different sheets of 8.5x11 paper to do some more sketching and some tighter comps.

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 9 - student project

I had the idea to make the colar the repeating motif across the beer labels and so each can will almost be like a zoomed in shot of the dog's chest. Their tag will be the place for their portrait, and their will also be subtle fur textures on the can.

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 10 - student project

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 11 - student project

I'm also mocking up my design using LiveSurface Context.

Doghouse Brewing Co. - image 12 - student project

Lin Zagorski

Designer & Illustrator

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