Bent Stick Brewing is an Edmonton microbrewery, passionate about good quality beer, inclusivity, and community.
To deliver the feeling of quality and competence with a quirky “bend”, I took a simple and modern graphic approach featuring the mash paddle—a key tool in brewing by hand—a friendly wizard, and a focal point directing the eye to a pint of beer. I drew inspiration from the precision of anatomical etchings and the impactful simplicity of modern style graphic design.
The wizard connotes alchemy, wisdom, competence, and trustworthiness, and also playful feelings of magic, quirkiness, and imagination. Therefore, the narrative of a wizard conjuring up a glorious pint of beer with lightning and a magical mash paddle really speaks to the core communication objectives of the Bent Stick Brand.
With black and white graphic elements and illustration at its heart, the visual identity is flexible to feature any colour for each of its assets, as long as it’s bright and bold. This ensures brand continuity, while still allowing for continuously exciting and novel packaging and merchandise design.
I chose Aleo as the typeface because of its friendly rounded corners and simple even geometric letter forms. It reads boldly as display type and accessibly as body text.
Where most breweries have up to five beers that they sell in cans, Bent Stick has a new beer almost weekly. They need a package design that follows a template, allowing for quick turnaround of constantly new designs that look on-brand but also strikingly different.
I created a template for the beer can label that clearly displays the Bent Stick wordmark, beer style, and the Bent Stick wizard illustration on the front, with a description of the beer on the side. Keeping those elements consistent, I then drastically changed the colour for each beer label.
By assigning a different colour to each beer, it not only differentiates each one, but it creates a feeling of "needing to try them all". When a customer walks into the beer cooler at the liquor store, they can spot the row of bright Bent Stick cans and instantly see if there's a new one to try.
Additionally, I've added little easter eggs to some of the label designs. These details align with the beer and allow for additional promotion. For example, the beer "Bucket Hat Summer", showcases the wizard in a bucket hat and displays a bright 90's inspired pattern that I designed. This beer was released with a Bent Stick branded bucket hat available for purchase, printed with the same pattern.
CKUA is a Canadian donor-funded community radio network based in Edmonton, Alberta. They started broadcasting in 1927 and are a staple in the Albertan arts and culture community.
Bent Stick Brewing partnered with CKUA to create this "Hidden Track" beer — Bent Stick providing the beer and CKUA providing the advertising.
During the 1930’s, when CKUA first started broadcasting, radios became fixtures in the home. These radios were beautiful, with art deco patterns and inlays, and often stood as large as a cabinet in the living room.
For this package design, I drew inspiration from CKUA’s history, these old radios, the art deco aesthetic in general, and the CKUA building itself — specifically the iconic CKUA letters on its exterior. I found that this all married well with the clean and modern graphic strategy of the Bent Stick visual identity.
I used the same two-dimensional illustration style as I did for the Bent Stick brand — one that focuses on line and shape over a solid background. I merged this with the art deco aesthetic, radio subject matter, CKUA colour palette, and the iconic CKUA letters vertically written in circles. This strategy combines both brands in a classy and cohesive way that speaks to the history of CKUA but feels modern and current.
