Growler Guide

Inspired by the recent surge of craft breweries in Vancouver, this pocket-sized guide was created to help beer aficionados track their favourite flavours, brands, and where to find them. 

project scope + details

Project Type: COMD 315 Productions Technology Assignment @ Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Project Objectives: Design concept, layout of minimum 2500-word body copy, typography, pre-press set-up
Additional Skills Involved: In addition to the above objectives, vector logos and hand-drawn illustrations were completed by Diana Law. Photographs were sourced from brewery websites. Photos of Vancouver cityscape and mountains were sourced from free stock photo sites for educational purposes. 
Programs Utilized: Adobe Indesign 2016 + Adobe Illustrator 2016.

Summary of execution

To be included in the guide, each brewery had to be locally established within Vancouver and currently operational. Since the guide was to be used by tourists and locals alike, each spread was designed to tell each brewery's distinctive story and personality. Each spread featured a summary of the brewery's core values, the story of their start-up, and a photographic splash of the brewery's establishment.  Additional information such as addresses, hours of operation, growler prices and beer recommendations were placed on the bottom of each page, in order to make the information easier for aficionados to find when flipping between pages to compare locations. 

Supporting information such as addresses, hours of operation, growler prices and beer recommendations were placed on the bottom of each page, in order to make the information easier for aficionados to find when flipping between pages to compare locations. Stories were set in Caslon Pro to evoke a sense of tradition and handmade workmanship, while supporting texts and headers were set in Knockout to establish a sense of pride and visual hierarchy. 

To holistically capture the collection of brewery under one visual narrative,  a coaster-shaped badge was specially designed featuring a Vancouver skyline and mountain range. A thread of commonality between each of the brewery's distinctive personality was established by utilizing stylistic choices found in craft-beer culture and branding as a whole, such as heavier weights, textured lines, and rugged colours. Together, these elements combined the individualism and creativity found in craft-beer culture with their Vancouver roots as a whole. In further iterations, each city would then have its own badge specially designed to reflect their respective identiies.

For convenience's sake, the guide was made to be passport-sized, in order to track all the flavours that have been tried. As part of a larger marketing campaign, each participating brewery would have a stamp of their logo or coaster design on hand to commemorate each visit, encouraging future returns and community participation.