Andrea Chiodo enjoys doodling, which ended up becoming the packaging art for Barrie, ON’s, Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery.

With a background in literature, Chiodo was never certain how she would turn her university degree into a career but managed to find a pretty unique way to combine her passion for storytelling and art since the launch of Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery for more than a decade.

With brews like Juicy Ass, which looks like a college student’s notebook, to a “laser-shooting cat” with Sparklepuff, it was the ideal partnership combining Chiodo’s passion for art and the quirky reputation of Flying Monkeys.

“I do not have a fine arts degree. I have a doodle degree and I just have an overactive imagination,” she said. “My background was as a literature professor and I never really knew what I was going to do, but I have always been a doodler and a colourer. I love the fusion of culture (and art).”

“I am all about diversity of the canon, so we needed to recognize that there was a lot more in beer than what is being represented,” she says. “I am not a trained artist, but I’ve always been intrigued by folk art and with literature you’re always telling a story.

“We had to make a reason and communicate to people why we do things the way we do.”

The process starts with naming the beer, says Chiodo, then she gets to work trying to tell the story of the beer through her artwork.

“The story of the beer always has to do with the palate and what we’ve done with it. What we do with our brand is we’re always trying to tell a story and trying to create a culture and express ourselves,” she says. “I love telling stories, I love hearing stories and I love looking around and repurposing — finding new ways to do old things.

“That’s what our beers are. In the early days of craft beer, and probably one of the reasons my art is the way it is, is because the only place we could compete was on the shelf,” Chiodo adds. “We couldn’t afford radio or TV ads, we couldn’t go hire celebrities to go slog our beer. We were trying to market in an industry that is basically run by (our) competitors, which is the big brewers.”

Their cans, Chiodo admits, are “kind of a mess,” but that’s one of the best things about it.  

“Honestly, I am not that great at it,” she jokes, “You look at it and you’re like ‘what the hell is that?!’ But when you really look at a big beer wall you see this big yellow can, a big blue can and then you see this big mess… and you’re drawn to it.

“Like is this a cat with lasers shooting out of its eyes?”

Click here for the full story. 

Photos courtesy of Nikki Cole/BarrieToday