Magpie Brewing Co. is an independent craft brewery from Seoul, South Korea. Hard set on producing high-quality beers and working on projects committed to craftsmanship has lead it to be one of the leading craft breweries in Asia. “Everywhere you find the little bird, you can experience what’s happening in the Korean craft beer scene today“.

This season we wanted to give Magpie Brewing Co’s most popular Saison, Bring Spring (봄마실) a fresh look to go along with the new taste. This batch is a bit different from previous years as it’s brewed to be more earthy with a hint of spicy flavors, floral/herbal aromas and just a touch of citrus fruit to top it off.

With the flavor profile driving the project, I really wanted to highlight the earthy, floral experience and figured the best way to be immersed in those flavors without eating dirt is having the next best thing, “real” plants incorporated in the design. In order to be able to manipulate the plants and flowers in a way that fit the design elements and all the deliverables, I decided that making a digital bouquet was the most versatile way to approach this design.

We wanted to keep it playful, so instead of making photo realistic plants I modeled a few spring classics along with some hybrid plants that don’t exist into a flat bouquet that we could alter as needed. The overall goal for the foliage was to ride the line between real and fake, and I think we accomplished that. I really like how the realistic elements take on a slight illustrative feel, which is a style I’ve been trying to play with for Magpie’s collaborative projects with OHKO Champions. You can see another example of this style in our recent work together, Black Rock Imperial Stout (The AR powered sci-fi-ish craft beer).

Lighting was the key to capturing the mood we were looking for. I played around with various colors and exposures but ultimately felt that a dark background with a bit of harsh side lighting let the plant shapes pop in and out of the background in a nice way. I felt it gives a fun depth to the design which helped bring a fresh new experience to this delicious beer.

Magpie Brewing Co. has a few international releases, but this years Bring Spring (봄마실) release is staying local and is available across South Korea starting March 20th.