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molson canadian lager AG Heros packaging
Meeting Between Colleagues

Molson CANADIAN - Special Edition
Packaging | Personal Project

Client

Molson Canadian

Location

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Year

Share

2022

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Brand personality

  • Patriotism

  • Pride of being Canadian

  • To act today and inspire tomorrow

Brief

The client has reached out to me to design the new visual for their Molson Canadian Lager AG Heros Special Edition to show their support toward the agriculture industry on February 22nd, National AG Day as well as bringing proud Canadians together to support those hard workers.

Campaign Purpose

With so many different producers feeding us and supporting our economy, Canadian Ag Day is a nationwide celebration of those contributions. This year Molson Canadian wants to honor and give visibility to all the people who work hard to grow our country.

 

Share your pride in being Canadian and support our ag heroes who work hard SO WE CAN Enjoy Molson Canadian beers with friends!  #CdnAgDay
 

The targeted audience

Gender: Equal

Age: 18 to 55

Location: Canada

Special traits:

  • Hard Worker

  • Patriotic

  • Proud Canadian

 

The product description

Brewed with Canadian water, prairie barley and no preservatives, this lager is as clean, crisp and fresh as the country it comes from. Molson Canadian earns its name with an iconic taste derived from authentic Canadian ingredients.

Phase I

The thinking

I spent some time researching the Molson Canadian company and its products in order to really get the mood of the brand. I gathered logos, fonts, and images that inspired the final result.

 

I always create a mood board that helps me to define some elements, the mood of the project, and to stay in line with the brief and the visual direction of the brand.

Research & Moodboard

My expectations 

When I started I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I just didn’t know early enough what style of illustration I wanted to go for. 

As the idea is to support and give visibility to the hard workers of the agricultural industry on the National AG Day, I knew I wanted to incorporate farmers of all types, machinery, truckers, scientists, etc., because they all play an important role in the agriculture industry.
Without them, we would have a broken system and as a result,
no food on the table.

I also wanted to have a sense of patriotism but didn’t know at the start exactly what I would do. The brand itself represents this value so I thought that detail could be enough.
 

Sketching

I used a combination of traditional and digital technics to sketch. I find it easier to put my ideas on paper first.

Insights 

Absolutely! I worked in the agricultural industry and got to see many facets of this field and live a life on a farm. Many times, while working on my illustration, I dove back in those memories and could relate directly with this brief. How many times did we have an ice-cold beer after a long hot day working outside? It just makes sense.

Then I used my Ipad Pro working in Procreate to finalize the sketch and start inking. Only the best sketch is presented to the client.

Inking

Sharing my process 

I kept going back in the fridge to look at the different cans we have. I spent time analysing the content of each of them. I also got my husband crazy by keeping all the boxes for a while. 

Skecth-Mockup.jpg

Why did I choose this approach?

In the beginning, I had a few ideas in mind. I wanted to represent the values but also the community, the AG community. I wanted to show that all together, every one of them, no matter what they do for work, are connected.

I chose to move forward with the idea that would show better the people involved.

Because after all, this edition is about people. It is about honoring and recognizing them. My other ideas were great but the people would have been competing with the background. The people needed to be the focus.

This is also why I chose to do my illustration in this style. Grey tone with a black line out. I wanted to keep the illustration simple because there is a lot of details and having too many colors would have been too hard to read. 

The logo needs to be obvious, so I decided to color only a few elements in red and blue and leave the rest neutral that way it pops out better. Using these colors was my way to represent patriotism.
 

Phase II

The production

Illustration

After the sketching step I jump on my computer using a Cintiq 22 inches to bring my sketch to life. 

Using Adobe Illustrator to vectorize my sketch and to enhance the illustration allows me to be able to scale it as much as I want and to move elements easily on the canvas.

Layout Production

The illustration is made on the die line in order to be able to visualize where each element will be located as well as the content.

Any obstacles or challenges?

As I mentioned, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I got into it right away and started illustrating. However, I had never done this style of illustration before. I definitely got out of my comfort zone.

Also, I decided to do my illustration entirely on my Ipad Pro. Normally I just do quick sketches on the Ipad. The good thing about doing it this way is that I discovered new tools, but it also took time to adapt to it. There is nothing we can’t do with a little patience and youtube!

learning-new-style.jpg

Did you learn anything while doing this project?

Definitely. I learned new tools and a new illustration style that I promise to continue to develop. Also, not all projects go the same way. I have a pretty good idea on how much time it normally takes me to produce an illustration, but this time, I didn’t plan that I would need extra time for discovering a new style. Next time, I will plan more time, that is for sure.

Phase III

Presentation

Mockups are according to me one of the most valuable elements in the process of designing a product. It really gives a sense of realism and can bring a client to feel that they can almost touch it. It is often with this last step that a client is sold with the design.

Mockup

Do I feel proud of this product?

I can say that I’m proud. The main reason is that I got out of my comfort zone by producing an illustration that was completely out of what I normally do. I used this project to evolve as an artist and produce something different.
I know that I’m capable!

Did it exceed my expectation?

It definitely exceeds my expectations.

The final result fits well with the brand and is not too much.

Yes, there are a lot of details, but it marries well with the rest of the elements.

How was it successful?

I sent my friend a mockup of the project and told him to try

this new special edition Molson Canadian as it is very good. He said ok I’ll be looking for it!
He said he was unable to find it in the store. Ha ha! I guess it is believable!

Enjoying-beer-mockup01.jpg

Attributions

Brief by Javier Reyes  |  reyesdelpech.com

Research by Monika Larochelle

Content: Molson Canadian / Molson Coors
Marketing Campaign idea: Monika Larochelle
Tagline: Monika Larochelle
Design, illustration & production by Monika Larochelle
Case Study by Monika Larochelle
Mockups by freepicks

 

Dieline
https://www.tracopackaging.com/wp-content/uploads/MCS008_12oz-Sleek-Shrink-Sleeve-Template_2017.4.pdf

Ingredients
https://www.molson.ca/en-CA/our-brews

Canada's AG Day
https://agriculturemorethanever.ca/cdn-ag-day/
https://www.instagram.com/agmorethanever/

Content inspiration
https://afsc.ca/news/canadian-ag-day-celebrates-farming-and-food/

Canadian agriculture
https://www.instagram.com/cdn_agriculture/
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/canadianagriculture/

History
https://strategyonline.ca/2019/07/02/o-molson-canadian-our-true-and-patriot-beer/

The future of Molson Canadian
https://strategyonline.ca/2019/07/02/o-molson-canadian-our-true-and-patriot-beer/

Meeting Between Colleagues

Like what you see?

Want to send me your feedbacks? Or maybe you need help with a project?

 

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