We often get asked about our wonderful label designs, so it's high time we introduced you to the amazing artist behind them all - our very own Alex Gladwin!
We asked Alex to give us the inspiration behind her amazing artwork.
“My background is in Fine Art Printmaking, and I am the daughter of a gardener who was also a keen naturalist. I’ve been part of the brewery family, and settled in a cottage here on the farm, for 13 years. You could say I’ve really ‘lived in the story’ of Black Isle Brewery - from pressing caps on bottles by hand in the early days, to building festivals, native hedge-planting, hand-milking cows, making cheese, giving garden tours to naturalists, lime-washing farm buildings, choosing beer names, weeding, furniture-making, growing vegetables, signwriting for the bar, mural-painting…you name it. I suppose it’s given me an insider’s view of the farm-brewery brand, and my designs reflect that.
When the brewery moved over to canning, I gave the core range labels a whole load of colour, clean lines and pattern – I wanted to convey the beers’ freshness and spectrum of flavour, and I took the inspiration from traditional Highland textiles."
"The seasonal labels use humour and experimentation, whether it be via a news headline, a book I’ve read with my son at bedtime, or a visual style I’ve come across in a graphic novel. Often, there’s not much time to think about it, and it’s pretty spontaneous. The time constraint is a gift. One of my favourites is of the brewery’s former mascot, a characterful terrier called ‘Tusker’, who is suitably reimagined as Colonel Gaddafi for the 2020 Christmas Beer with a backdrop of Georgian fleur-de-lys wallpaper (the main house on site is Georgian)."
"I love a retro image, and the glassware drawings certainly have that feeling. The ox-eye daisies and campion featured amongst the barley are those which can been found in summer along the track to the brewery. For many people, the idea of meadows and an abundance of natural beauty is a nostalgic one, so it’s no surprise that retro imagery suits the subject. Happily, here at Black Isle, I can confirm that it is something which still exists today and I am lucky to live and work amongst it.”
