Hot House Brewing Beer Labels

Beer Label Illustration and Design

These are beer labels I’ve illustrated and designed for Hot House Brewing. The illustrations on the cans are digital paintings. I do the illustrations in ProCreate on my iPad Pro, using an Apple Pencil. Final tune-ups are handled in Photoshop.

I design and layout the labels in Adobe InDesign. Each label has a left-side panel which has some information relating to the subject of the label art. I do all the research and writing as well as the artwork.

All the Labels on 4-Packs

: Rattlesnake Gulch IPA

: U BRUT IPA

: Sorachi Blond Ace Ale

: Plank Road Porter

: Golden Eagle Pale Ale

: Grandma’s Sweater Pale Ale

: Neepah Creek NEIPA

: Torch’s Irish Red Ale

: SamSquash Spiced Harvest Ale

: Smiley Nut Brown Ale

: Daylight in the Swamp Amber Ale

Illustration Process

Artwork for the labels starts with a concept and pencil sketches. Once the sketch is finalized and approved, I transfer it to my iPad. Final art is painted in ProCreate with an Apple Pencil on an iPad Pro. Final touches are done in Photoshop.

Time-lapse Video

Above: Line art for Grandma’s Sweater. It was drawn in ink on paper, scanned, and transferred to ProCreate on my iPad Pro. All color & texture was done in ProCreate.

Below: A time-lapse video of the process. I was going for a woodcut sort of feel to the final art.

Below: the finished label

3D Mockups

I use Strata Design 3D to mock-up the labeled cans for use in marketing elements, like sell sheets and Facebook posts. Once the base model is built, changing the label and producing a new render from any angle is fairly simple. Modeling the cans prior to the labeled can production allows us to get a jump on the marketing before we have the printed labels.

Label Layouts

Examples of the label layouts. Each illustration is different, but label elements — like the bottom banner, logo, and sidebars — help tie the brand together.