On Assignment: The Art Behind CT Craft Beer Labels

The Connecticut beer trail is on fire and with 90 breweries open and 17 pending. According to the CT Brewers Guild, competition to attract an audience is on an all time high. Besides the great beers inside the cans, the exterior artwork among all these breweries is fascinating and helps brands stand out from the competition. I knew the topic of label art would be a great addition to the Winter issue of CT Food & Farm Magazine and was excited to be assigned to highlight the amazing artistry and people behind Black Hog Brewing Co. (full article at the bottom of the post)

The photo assignment consisted of two separate photo shoots. I knew I wanted to capture images on canning day since it would provide some action into the process of making beer. It was so much fun to watch the process and capture images all around the brewery. The guys at Black Hog were so generous with their time and talking to me about their whole operation. The second photo shoot was at Max Toth’s art studio. Max is the mastermind behind the Black Hog’s branding and artistry of every release the brewery has had. My goal was to capture his process and how he worked. The reflection shots seen below were captured at this studio. Once I spotted the glass topped black table, I knew I had to use that to capture the can line up. No special lighting was used and luckily one of the back walls was white. I was so happy with the results and I could have stayed all day shooting.
Below you will find highlights of some of my favorite images that were not seen in the article, plus some behind the scenes work. (see more on my website: BlackHogBrewing)

Any assignment that has me working with entrepreneurs is always rewarding. With my latest offering of Personal Brand Photography, I can now serve businesses with a full range of images (lifestyle, product, stock, portrait etc) and supply them with much needed custom content to grow their brand, business and audience base. Find out more about my Personal Brand Photography Session or email me at Nicole@nbphotog.com, I can’t wait to hear about your business.