Aalborg Akvavit Label Illustration


In my younger days I lived and went to school for a year in Aalborg, Denmark. There you can find a street called Jomfru Ane Gade where liquor flows freely from the plethora of bars and raucous ‘cheers!’ can be heard up and down the famous street the city of Aalborg is known for.

So when Line Krüger contacted me to commission an illustration for the schnapps company of the same name I had just a few flashbacks before promptly accepting the job. Basically anytime someone calls you up and asks “can you draw some meat on a stick?” you have to say yes.

aalborg-akvavit-grill-bottles

If there is something the Danes like more than getting a tax cut or drinking schnapps, it’s consuming pork and other meat products. So combining the latter two activities seems like a surefire bet for Aalborg Akvavit, who created this new product for pairing with summer grill food. The label itself was designed by Line who also creative directed the illustration process.

Meat on a stick.
Meat on a stick.

Usually associated with the popular and omnipresent event of December, the julefrokost, schnapps (or akvavit) is consumed in large quantities even though the glasses that carry the liquid from bottle to mouth are minute. I’m convinced this small beverage vessel was created with the hidden agenda of giving the Danes the maximum number of opportunities to shout SKÅL before reaching full inebriation.

Enjoying summer with many tiny glasses of akvavit.
Enjoying summer with many tiny glasses of akvavit.

Photo credit: Kristine Hansen

Umpqua Bank Bella Voce Collateral


A client I have always enjoyed working for is Umpqua Bank, which was the case again in my latest project with them to create branding for an event series duo. The two part branding was for a book event series (Bella Voce) and follow-up educational talks on wealth management and planning (Wise Women Conversations). The collateral needed to be upscale and feminine for an audience of women aged 40-60 with money to manage.

Taking cues from Umpqua’s Private Bank branding, the new collateral uses a woodgrain pattern paired with intricate but modern flourishes to adorn the range of 16 pieces created for the two event series. This simple structure is combined with a brand color palette – the gray + chocolate (or brown, as most people call it) used for UPB is shifted to a gray + teal combo while still staying on brand.

The two logotypes were hand-lettered by Mary Snow, and Kate Zimmerman art directed the project. To learn more about the events, visit Bella Voce’s page or the Wise Women page on Umpqua Bank’s website.

Wise Women Conversations brochure and event card.
Wise Women Conversations brochure and event card.
Bella Voce brochure and guest card, two of thirteen deliverables in the collateral series.
Bella Voce brochure and guest card, two of thirteen deliverables in the Bella Voce collateral series.
Bella Voce illustration library.
Bella Voce illustration library.

More Icebreakers Book Illustrations


Here are more illustrations for the Icebreakers book I’ve posted about previously here and here. The illustration style was a new one for me, catering to the client’s need for a large quantity of illustrations that were unique for a small budget. Drawing people can be time consuming, but in this case we substituted the painstaking details such as faces, hands and feet for colors and patterns on bendy-bodies that were easy to contort into many shapes without needing to be realistic.

The Sheriff sharpshooter game requires a quick reaction time and shouting bang to avoid being eliminated from the game.
The Sheriff sharpshooter game requires a quick reaction time and shouting bang to avoid being eliminated from the game.

I enjoyed the challenge of this and the project limitations giving way to something I normally wouldn’t try at first glance. The result was a very easy and functional way of drawing characters in an endless variety of personalities.

One Body requires you to mimic the leader.
One Body requires you to mimic the leader.

Another part of this project was creating vocal symbols that, for the most part, weren’t based in a specific language, since Postyr Project travels all over the world with their a cappella group. The spirals, crosses, dots and hash marks serve their pictographic purpose well, and remind me of the difficulty of pronouncing something your tongue is not used to twisting. For example when anybody Danish tries out the word squirrel – it might as well be a squiggly line in a speech bubble. Don’t worry Danes, we can’t say “rød grød med fløde” so I think we’re even.

The radar game, where participants make unique noises and try to find each other with eyes closed.
The radar game, where participants make unique noises and try to find each other with eyes closed.

The first edition of the book is just about sold out, but you can see the authors’ website here for future editions: www.breaktheice.dk.