Skeleton Key Brewery Monogram

Custom monogram and skeleton key graphic for a brewery local to Chicago to be used on various merchandise and beer products including tshirts, hoodies, beer can labels, pins and magnets.

Client: Skeleton Key Brewery
Services: Custom hand lettering, art direction

Custom monogram lettering for Skeleton Key Brewery by Chicago freelance lettering artist and food illustrator

The project brief was to create a graphic that could be used on business merchandise. Art direction was left open for my interpretation, and we discussed focusing on typographic treatments as well as incorporating imagery such as keys, hops, and barley in a unique way.

 
Custom monogram lettering concepts for Skeleton Key Brewery by Chicago freelance lettering artist and food illustrator
 

I sketched three proposed concepts, ranging from more ornate and decorative type to a graphical, monogrammed key. The client ended up choosing both concepts 2 and 3, with 3 as the main graphic and 2 for secondary use on some clothing merchandise.

 
Custom monogram lettering for Skeleton Key Brewery by Chicago freelance lettering artist and food illustrator
 

Referenced skeleton keys and monograms as inspiration for the key design. Chose to cleverly intertwine the brewery’s initials, “SKB,” into the key design so a viewer can notice the initials upon closer inspection.

 
Custom monogram lettering for Skeleton Key Brewery by Chicago freelance lettering artist and food illustrator
 

Drew multiple pencil and ink sketches for texture variation, scanned and layered into photoshop, then transferred to illustrator to convert to a final vectorized file.

 
Custom monogram lettering on t-shirt for Skeleton Key Brewery merchandise by Chicago freelance lettering artist and food illustrator
Custom monogram lettering on t-shirt for Skeleton Key Brewery merchandise by Chicago freelance lettering artist and food illustrator
 

Skeleton Key Brewery displayed this graphic on multiple clothing items, including hoodies, tshirts and tanks.

 
Custom monogram lettering on magnets for Skeleton Key Brewery by Chicago freelance lettering artist and food illustrator

The key graphic also sized well into magnets and pins.

Custom monogram lettering for Skeleton Key Brewery by Chicago freelance lettering artist and food illustrator
 

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Belinda Kou