This was a challenge away from my usual wheelhouse of bright, cutesy, and colorful, but it was a welcome challenge nonetheless. This project started initially with this found text, which was derived from this image of a storm drain I took in my neighborhood with the Image Trace function in Illustrator:
The text only read as WATER initially, but I pieced together an S using some of the "pellets" generated by the Image Trace. Several anagrams later, I settled on this name for this custom font:
I picked out some grimy-looking green colors to really fit the vibe. I really love the texture. Even the name has some serious oomph to it: SEWER RAT. I had to keep expanding on it. I thought a beer brand might be a good place to use the font. Something as grimy and grungy as this font would be perfect for a cheap beer.
I used those same two colors from above as the main colors for the project. I really had to restrain myself from picking a million colors to use. I found this interesting brick texture again using the Image Trace function, and it helps to give off the grunge feeling I was aiming for. One of the "pellets" it generated looked vaguely rat-like, so I adjusted it to create the rat logo. It's a pale green with a bright red eye.
