With a new sour comes a new label art contest. Meadaritaville's label was chosen by you, our fans.
But it was designed by Chris Lyons. Our marketing peon, Sam Trathen, sat down with Chris to talk about his inspiration, his own mead brewing, and so much more.
Please tell us about yourself -- how did you get into art? What are your inspirations? Are you a full-time artist?
Hi, my name is Chris Lyons and I’m an artist from Enfield, Connecticut. I couldn’t really pinpoint the exact moment I started making art. For the majority of my life, I’d been doodling in the margins of notebooks and using art as a creative outlet. It wasn’t until a couple years ago however, that I decided to pursue design as a career path. Most of my inspiration comes from existing art such as vintage comic book ads, the wood cuts of Albrecht Durer, old timey nautical stuff, and anything Halloween-related. Although I’ve been trying to keep busy, I can’t yet call myself a full-time artist due to the fact that existing is expensive and I’m bad at negotiating prices.
How did you come to find out about Groennfell/Havoc mead and subsequently this competition?
Earlier this year during quarantine, I tried out a lot of hobbies. While most of them fell through, one that I particularly enjoyed was making my own mead. After weeks of googling mead-related questions, the inevitable happened and I started seeing mead -related advertisements on my Instagram feed. Luckily one of which was Groennfell. I had tried to design a couple of my own mead labels in the past and after a bit of browsing on Groennfell’s Instagram page, discovered the label design competition.
Please tell us a little about your design and how you came up with it.
Talk to anyone that has spent more than 24 hours with me and they’ll tell you I’m a guy that likes drawing skeletons and the musical stylings of Jimmy Buffet. When I learned the title of Havoc/Groennfell’s next mead would be Meadaritaville, I couldn’t have been more excited. Of course, when I think of Jimmy Buffet, I picture a cold drink on a sunny beach. Honey, flowers, and bees are also a go-to whenever I design anything mead-related. Throw a happy skeleton in there and that’s pretty much my whole design process.
The color palette of your piece is one of our favorite aspects about the piece. How did you decide on those colors?
Normally for me, choosing a color palette is one of toughest parts of design, but for this project, it came fairly naturally. Whenever I think about the beach, my mind associates it with warm colors (orange, yellow, red), compliment those with some cooler colors (blues and greens) and you get a pretty distinct and eye-popping color scheme. I also try and keep my colors slightly on the desaturated side, which gives the design a more vintage appearance.
Where can we find you and your art online? Are you working on any other projects right now? Brag to us!
You can find me on Instagram (@lyonkid.art), that’s where I post all my latest art! I currently have a couple freelance projects in the works but I’m always looking for new design opportunities. I also have an Etsy shop (lyonkidart) where you can find prints and shirts featuring my designs!
6. Anything else you'd like to share with us?
I would just like to thank Groennfell/Havoc for this awesome opportunity. Additional thanks to everyone who voted for my design, I appreciate you all so much!
Thank you, Chris, for sitting down with us and for contributing such a fantastic design!
Click here or the image above to purchase this Meadaritaville pint glass!
