This was such an exciting project, an opportunity to practice my other great passion; illustration. I have always been inspired by the great master engravers and draftsmen of the 17th and 18th century, Hendrik Goltzius, Jan Van De Velde to name a few. The way they captured so much atmosphere and detail, with only lines is incredible craftsmanship, and something that has always interested me.
I was thrilled to work on the dragon illustration for a well known & well loved beer, Pivovarna Union, in the town of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.
Illustration Agency Umer approached me to create an update to the dragon illustration that is used throughout the brand, as the 'mascot', and printed on all the beer labels and packaging.
The town of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
Their existing logo included a dragon graphic that was rather crude, and not quite adequate for the scale they needed, as well as not being entirely accurate at portraying the famous Ljubljana dragon.
Dragon statue.
The first record of beer brewing in Ljubljana is from 1592.The brewery was founded in 1864 as a small family business by Ivan and Peter Kosler as Kosler brewery.
The brand goes way back,and had many transformations over the ages, but the dragon emblem was never something that received prominence, until now.
Vintage branding for Union.
So I began by taking the previous dragon graphic and building upon that adding detail according to the actual statue(above).
I was really happy with the final result. That challenge was to make sure it stayed true to the original graphic in a way, but also resembled the actual physical statue as accurately as possible.
I also was commissioned soon after to create an etching style illustration of the very old brewery building, that had some unique features, like the air vents at the top of the ventilation system.
Brewery building.
Final etching.
Application of illustration overlaid on a vintage graphic of the original building.
Final products with new dragon graphic.
Cheers!