Art Direction for the Guinness Open Gate Brewery & Barrel House, 2017
For over 260 years Guinness has grown to be one of the world’s most beloved breweries. In 2018, they opened their first U.S. brewery, The Open Gate Brewery & Barrel House, just outside of Baltimore, Maryland. The site serves as a testing ground for new innovations but also a treasury of rich brewing history.
An important part of this history is the work of the artist and illustrator, John Gilroy, who created the iconic zoo animal posters that were used in Guinness advertising during the 1930s and 50s. The art direction of the brewery would ultimately use many of these famous illustration accompanied by text set in Avenir Bold, which hints at the hand-crafted typography of Gilroy’s original posters.