The Road to El Dorado

Small Planet Design Director J.D. Paulsen on the process and inspiration behind his new can design for Evil Twin Brewing.

We are immensely proud of our Design Director J.D. Paulsen and his beautiful new can design for Evil Twin Brewing’s Dumbo Artists Series.

When we were given the opportunity to collaborate with Evil Twin, he immediately thought about the golden tones of a beer and how to incorporate that into both the name and the art of the label without being too obvious. He actually got to name the new beer too, christening the citrusy, double dry-hopped IPA “El Dorado.”

“The very first thing I do when working on a new piece that has no clear concept yet is to find the right music to set the proper mood,” says J.D. “The funky, psychedelic tune of ‘Feeling Good about Feeling Good’ by Art Feynman is what started it all. It reminded me of the movie ‘Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’ and the yellow Cadillac Brad Pitt’s character drove around Los Angeles, which led me to the famous Cadillac El Dorado (The Golden) from those years.”

Keeping in line with the theme of the 1960s, he used a font and logo treatment that was a homage to California circa 1969, and to some of the oversized signs outside diners you see in the movies of the era.

“For the backdrop of the label, a desert and cactus landscape instead of an actual city street seemed like a better way to convey thirst and the need to quench it with a cool, refreshing beer. The obvious tag for it then was “‘Chill Your Thirst!’”

El Dorado is available at both Evil Twin taprooms (Dumbo, Brooklyn and Ridgewood, Queens) and shipping is available for residents in NY/PA/DC/NH.

See more illustration and design work from J.D. at @jdpaulsen_art, who’s represented by the Illo Agency. He also, of course, does inspired design work every day for Small Planet.

Small Planet creates award-winning mobile and web products. We provide full UX design, development, QA, team support, and product management services. Follow us @smallplanetapps.