When the newly formed ISU Brew Lab needed branding to market, label and sell their product, they looked no further than ISU’s own graphic design department.

As a part of their practicum course, graphic design students are paired up with real clients to do real work, gaining experience in real-world iteration and design integration that must appease the intended user group, marketing teams, the client(s) and the student themself.

“Two years ago, Dr. Robert Brown reached out to my boss–the department chair, Paul Bruski, wanting to partner with graphic design students to brand the Brew Lab, which is a faculty-led student-run brewery on campus,” Patrick Finley, assistant professor of graphic design, said.

Brown, distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, established the brewing laboratory at ISU in 2021 according to the ISU engineering department’s website. The lab began wholesaling beer in 2023.

With a semester-long theme of “liquor and beverage,” guest speakers from Angry Orchard and Samuel Adams visited the class to discuss their branding. Framed as a competition, the students then got to generating the Brew Lab’s new branding.

In teams of four, the graphic design students began by sketching the designs for logos which later evolved further into designs for tap handles, promotional assets, packaging and environmental graphics.

“Since we were working with a real client and getting actual feedback from them, it was a big learning curve, having to take their feedback and put it in our logo and designs, whether that was something we initially wanted in or not,” Mia Wang, a senior in graphic design, said.

The students had to work within the limitations of Iowa State’s brand standards, sticking to particular color palettes and trademarked ISU iconography, such as the campanile or cyclone.

“It’s a lot of balancing creativity with what the guidelines were,” Wang said.

Angelo Ducato, a senior in graphic design, said that this course was unique because they had to rely on other people’s opinions and thoughts to shape their designs.

“You can’t just design for yourself,” Ducato said. “‘What are they looking for? What are the restrictions, what are the requirements?’ It’s a lot of learning and balancing… and making iterations off of that.”

According to Ducato, the four groups individually began with 300 sketches, which were winnowed down over time.

“Sometimes we had to go back to the drawing board and scrap some logos,” Ducato said. “What’s working, what’s not, what is [Brown] liking, what is he not liking?”

According to Finley, before presenting their cumulative 1,200 sketches, the class spent two class periods digging through the Parks Library archives, learning about the history of Iowa State. The themes they discovered continued to echo through their designs, Finley said.

The teams then presented their top logo designs to Brown, his colleagues and University Marketing. From there, the feedback was synthesized and certain logos were chosen to move forward.

“It was a lot of circling these, crossing out these,” Ella Janssen, a senior in graphic design, said. “It really came down to who was able to take Robert’s requests and turn them into an outcome that he liked and was able to understand him and his vision.”

According to Finley, understanding the clients was key.

“Your job is discovery or being an investigator,” Finley said. “It’s like a first date type thing, again and again and again, and then there’s this winnowing process.”

Nadine Khoury, teaching assistant for the practicum class and a graphic design student, recalled the wide variety of logo designs.

“We had a really big range in the beginning, which was really fun, but also challenging to put it all together,” Khoury said.

The synthesis required strong teamwork in the face of a competitive setting.

“None of the groups really knew what the other group was doing,” Ducato said. “Teamwork was a really big thing. [In] graphic design, you’re usually working by yourself or with maybe one other person. Working with four people – it was definitely something to adapt to.”

Ducato cited communication, leadership and delegation as all vital to the end product.

“We would all take a sketch or a logo that we were confident in achieving and vectoring and making sure that it was clean,” Ducato said. “Being able to pick out strengths and who’s good at what was very important to keep the process going and keep it efficient.”

Janssen also mentioned the technical difficulties during team projects.

“You can’t share Illustrator files,” Janssen said. “Only one person has the file. So once it gets into that stage, it’s hard for it to still be collaborative, but I think there was a lot of collaboration and ideating and bouncing off of each other before we got to that stage.”

Khoury recalled the transformation as the groups began developing teamwork and communication.

“From someone sitting on the outside at the beginning of the semester, when we first put everyone in groups, you could tell that there was this awkward, ‘What do you want to work on?’” Khoury said. “But after a while, they all got really comfortable with each other. And I think that’s where they started to get pushed.”

The project, which lasted all semester, is now being rolled out in phases based on need using the student’s final designs.

The Brew Lab branding has been finalized, according to Janssen. However, some work is additionally being done for the Cidery which plans to launch in early summer.

“We’re pulling [these] together to be a cohesive line,” Janssen said. 

Finley called the branding lines “siblings of each other.” The designs each feature the Campanile encircled by other symbolic forms.

“The Cidery has an apple tree, and within the negative forms are apples on both sides,” Finley said. “The Brew Lab has a campanile in the middle but has a hop with barley in it.”

Finley referred to the semester’s cohort as a “star cast of students,” and applauded the students on being able to integrate many sources of feedback all while remembering their target demographic.

This year, Finley’s practicum course is focusing on designing for veteran and first responder groups.

All contributors to the class are listed below:

• Briley Banwart
• Jamie Beal
• Edward Casey
• Allison Chappell
• Natalie Clement
• Brooks Doerrfeld
• Angelo Ducato
• Anna Dunlap
• Wyatt Hackman
• Ella Janssen
• Nadine Khoury – teaching assistant
• Thomas Klein
• Sierra Kruger
• Maegan Luckiesh – research assistant
• Dan McCurley – graduate student
• Lauren Novak
• Paige Panosh
• McKenzie Rentschler
• Morgan Shepherd
• Mia Wang

Editor’s note – A previous version of this story misspelled a name.