THE IDEA
Dragonbreath Pale Lager was created for entry into the A'Design Award packaging design competition. A freestyle design competition open to both concept stage and realised works designed by professional and young designers, packaging design companies and other businesses in the package manufacturing industry around the world.
Since I was a child I've been heavily influenced by Japanese Art, particularly Tattoos and Manga artists and the folklore and myths surrounding them. I'm heavily inspired by Artists like James Jean and Kentaro Miura who perfectly blend surreal fantastical imagery with elements from real life. What inspired this project was a collaboration James Jean recently did with The Grateful Palate in order to create champagne packaging. The end product is more like a piece of Art than packaging. I doubt many people who have bought it have actually opened the bottles in fear of destroying the artwork.
I wanted to do the same, create a fantastical beer in order to showcase a mythical creature from folklore and use the platform to show off an Illustration of mine. So unlike most of my Packaging Designs this was created with Illustration in mind and at the forefront from the offset. The rough idea starting out, a beer so strong it gives you DRAGONBREATH.
INITIAL SKETCH
When I first envisioned this product, it was with a Dragon and Lion facing off against one another. However for the sake of the name and theme I went with just a Dragon. It was also a nightmare trying to fit my other design elements around two Illustrations that were not symmetrical. Even if the Illustrations were carefully and beautifully done the design became ugly. But who knows, at a later date, Lion Breath Lager could definitely come back with a bite as another passion project.
DESIGN TEMPLATE
FINAL DESIGN
