Two stories. One can.

Directing a community label collaboration for the 40th anniversary of Vallejo Pista Sa Nayon.
Role:
Director of Marketing, Mare Island Brewing Co.

Contribution:
Creative Brief, Artist Selection, Creative Direction, Launch Creative, PR

Background:
For its 40th anniversary, one of the Bay Area's largest celebrations of Filipino culture asked us to put its beer in cans for the first time. I directed the project from the first brief to the beer on shelves.
Festival vice chair Mary Medina, artist Niki Toney and Mare Island Brewing's founders with the first Pista Pilsner cans on the canning line
First cans off the line with Vallejo Pista Vice Chair Mary Medina, artist Niki Toney, and our founders. Photo credit: Chris Riley/Times-Herald
The challenge
How do you direct creative for a beer that has to honor two histories at once: a 40-year celebration of Filipino-American culture, and a brewery built on the West Coast's first naval shipyard?

For years we'd brewed Pista Pilsner on draft for Vallejo Pista Sa Nayon, held on the Mare Island waterfront right outside our brewery. For the festival's 40th anniversary, we partnered with its chair to release the beer in cans for the first time, and to carry the festival's name across the Bay Area.

The two stories were already connected. By the 1930s, hundreds of Filipino workers helped power Mare Island Naval Shipyard, a community that grew to as many as 1,500 by 1942. And the festival's theme that year, Kwentuhan, or storytelling, is the idea our whole brand is built on.

Four parties had a stake in the result: the festival, the artist, our founders, and the Mare Island brand. The label had to work for all of them.
Crowd celebrating at Vallejo Pista Sa NayonFilipino workers at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 1932
The brief
I wrote a brief that asked for a true collaboration, not a brewery borrowing a culture's imagery: an original, hand-illustrated scene that wraps the whole can and rewards a closer look, made by a Filipino-American artist from the Bay Area, ideally from Vallejo.

It also set the hard edges. Our logo had to anchor the label, the festival had to be clearly represented, and the art had to clear TTB and ABC labeling rules on a 16 oz wrap.
First page of the Pista Pilsner creative brief
Finding the artist
I ran an open call for portfolios, interviewed finalists, and chose Niki Toney, a Vallejo-based Filipino-American illustrator whose work has appeared in the LA Times, Vox/Eater, and the U.S. Department of State. Plenty of locals already knew her work from downtown Art Walk nights.

Bringing in someone from the community was the most important creative decision on the project. The story was hers to tell; my job was to help her tell it on our can.

Shout-out to Niki: an amazing collaborator, incredible artist, and all-around super cool human.
Artist Niki Toney mixing ink in her studio
Directing the label
We built the art together over three rounds of review, starting from Niki's hand-drawn drafts. I worked to protect her voice while keeping the can unmistakably ours: the Mare Island logo and wordmark anchor a dense, joyful scene of the festival on our waterfront.

Each round, I gathered feedback from our founders and the festival chair and turned it into clear direction for Niki, then took the final art through compliance and file prep for the printer.
The final Pista Pilsner can
Telling the Story
across channels
With the label final, I directed our marketing coordinator on launch creative that told the same story everywhere it showed up: a sell sheet for distributors and retail buyers, social, a "history behind the name" section on our website, email, and an artist showcase and label unveiling at our Coal Shed taproom.
Pista Pilsner sell sheet for distributors and retail buyersFlyer for the artist showcase and label unveilingSummer email featuring Pista Pilsner in cans
Instagram announcement of the Pista Pilsner collaborationThe history behind the name section on the Mare Island Brewing website
In the press
I pitched the story to local press and coordinated a photo shoot on our canning line, which led to features in two local newspapers, the Vallejo Sun and the Times-Herald.
Newspaper feature on the canned Pista Pilsner and Filipino historyNewspaper feature on artist Niki Toney at Mare Island Brewing
The results
Pista Pilsner sold through quickly at our taprooms and retail partners, earned two newspaper features and a wave of organic social from the Bay Area's Filipino-American community, and gave the festival's 40th anniversary a presence well beyond the waterfront.

Just as important, the festival, the artist, and our founders all came away proud of it.
Getting a community's story right means bringing in the people it belongs to.
Project Highlights
  • Wrote the creative brief and led the artist search, selecting Vallejo Fil-Am illustrator Niki Toney
  • Directed the label through three rounds of review, aligning the artist, the festival chair, and our founders
  • Took the final art through compliance and print-ready files for a 16 oz can wrap
  • Directed launch creative across wholesale, social, web, and email, plus an artist showcase and label unveiling
  • Pitched local press and coordinated the photo shoot, landing two newspaper features

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