Collective Arts Brewing has taken beer can designing to new levels with its craft beverage cans and bottles to becoming a portable gallery for artists to showcase their work.

Designer and illustrator Tim Singleton

“There’s nothing cooler than walking into the LCBO and seeing my art on the shelf or showing up to a party and seeing cans with my art being passed around,” says designer and illustrator Tim Singleton in his interview article with Toronto Life.

“Working with thousands of artists over the years has been the biggest driver for us to push through mediocrity and continually innovate so that the products we make are as refined and thoughtful as the work on the outside of the can,” says Matt Howell, Collective Arts’s head distiller and cider-maker.

When Singleton was asked to collaborate on Collective Arts’s 2020 Pride campaign, he felt uplifted by the experience. “It’s a really affirming feeling when your art is amplified like this,” he says.

“It honestly feels iconic and it’s the encouragement I need some days to keep going as a creative,” said Singleton.  

Multidisciplinary artist and designer Avril Wu

Avril Wu says working on various projects with the brewery, such as cans, bottles, murals and merchandise, helped Wu “to explore my creative freedom, challenge and stretch my creativity and get exposure to new audiences.” “This process has allowed me to delve deeper into the journey of developing further as an artist, personally and professionally.”

Designer and illustrator Blake Stevenson

“It immediately spoke to me,” he recalls. “At the time, it seemed like a pretty cool experiment. Years later, it has become so much more.” For Stevenson–whose playful style is influenced by 1980s and ’90s pop culture–having his art on cans makes it approachable. “Sometimes art can feel out of reach and hard to understand for many people,” he says. “Making art accessible has always been a goal of mine and what is more accessible than having your art present while people are hanging out, having a few drinks? That is a pretty rad way to distribute creativity to the world.”