Bunker Brewing Posters - Remixing Pop Culture
ROLES
Retouching
| Creative
The posters reimagined the key art of movies and album covers that the beer names paid homage to. This was during the early craft beer revival, when canning hadn't yet taken over as both a packaging mainstay and the primary creative/art direction focus. Beer releases would have fun names and occasionally posters — but mostly just simple, informative ones. These posters were a shot at making something more engaging, full of inside jokes, some nostalgia, and a few self-aware jabs for laughs.
The process usually included replacing band members or actors with brewery employees, using existing photos or shooting new ones for the right angles and lighting. Every piece of the artwork would be rebuilt to match the original style, while slipping in subtle references to Bunker or collaborating breweries/restaurants — both in imagery and text, blending different art styles, and recreating fonts from scratch when needed. We also developed a weird affinity for replacing "S" with "Z" in most wordz during this time.
Keep scrolling to see before/afters, behind-the-scenes, and stories about how these came to be.
THE START - FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTY
The series started after Bunker brewed an IPA and called it MCIPA, as it just happened to be releasing around MCA's (of the Beastie Boys) birthday. That was also — coincidentally — my birthday, so I was on board to make a poster. After all I don't need much of an excuse to party, listen to good music, and create a fun poster. There were three people working at Bunker at the time, so after some beers and some jokes, the idea to remake the Check Your Head album cover into Check Your Hops was born.
Admittedly, it was a fairly straightforward remake — nothing too crazy or packed with insider nods — but it kicked off a decade working with Bunker and a run of posters that were sometimes as anticipated as the beer itself.
Since this was essentially a passion project in the beginning I had almost full creative reign. It was an era where I became obsessed with blending and recreating existing styles into esoteric jokes and nostalgic or insider references.
I was really just trying to make myself laugh and my favorite projects are still the ones with a deeper level of humor that requires a double take — the kind that makes you wonder what else you missed.
GREEN MIND - "I WANT TO MAKE IT MY OWN"
The second album-cover beer, and the first time I started playing with the original art instead of straight-up recreating it. A fairly simple tweak, but effective. I also started adding beer details in the form of stickers you'd see on albums.
"BACK WITH A NEW STYLE"
Another Beastie Boys riff, this time for an M.C.I.P.A. re-release at The Honey Paw. This time replacing the man in the can ordering at the old school drive through with the Honey Paw chef Tom Pisha-Duffly holding a take out box to replace the 2 way speaker. The new title was rebuilt from the original titles letters and the special menu for the event was adding into the drive through sign replacing the existing menu.
Fun fact: we didn't know at the time but while shooting the awkward angles needed for the composite, the kitchen staff watched assuming it was for an article and thought, "This might be the worst photographer we’ve ever seen.” They were very relieved later.
The picture in question below.
"STEP BY STEP, OOOPS BABY"
Sadly, the beer for this poster had to be dumped before the brewfest, and the poster was never officially released.
Maybe five posters made it out into the world, and it will just have to live here now.
The composite images are below. The first three images were grabbed from socials, but the last 2 needed to be shot to align just right.
WEEKEND AT BURNIE'Z - A BEER TO DIE FOR
Art imitating life. This beer came after a wild weekend when the Other Half team was up for a festival. As soon as the name was said, the creative direction was obvious: Sam and Matt from Other Half holding up Chresten, Bunker's head brewer.
The scene expanded to include Bunker's assistant brewer Joe (he requested to be in a golf cart, referencing a scene he liked). The background also had the street sign and string light from Bunkers backyard, where all the brewers had hung their name tags during a post-brewfest late-night hangout. Bunker kegs and Other Half cans were also scattered around.
Most of the composite images used below.
STOUTCATION - "HEY, YOU LOOK LIKE YOU COULD USE A COLD ONE"
Stoutcation actually started as more of a play on Vacationland for a dark beer only event, but as soon as I heard it I knew what needed to happen. The station wagon from the original movie poster was replaced with Chresten's pickup, the original Bunker delivery truck. Dan, Andrew, and Glen were photographed driving; Mackenzie (who wasn’t present that day) was Photoshopped into the back seat looking unimpressed per usual. Fran was photographed to be wandering the desert with a stout, filling out some empty space.
Of course, Chresten replaced Clark, and Bunker beers/stickers replaced anything original on the luggage.
Honestly, for the time spent on a poster for a one-weekend event, this one was purely for the love of the game.
Check out the close-up of the truck replacement above. All the images used in the composite below, almost all shot just for this poster.
