Hot House Brewing Beer Labels

Rattlesnake Gulch IPA

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

Grandma's Sweater Pale Ale — Grandma’s Sweater Pale Ale

Torch's Irish Red Ale — Torch’s Irish Red 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.