BRANDING THE ‘BURGH

TWO GRAPHIC DESIGN ALUMNI CREDIT EDINBORO EDUCATION WITH THEIR ROLES IN AWARD-WINNING MAKEOVER FOR IRON CITY BEER

Earlier this year, I.C. Light beer sold out across the Pittsburgh region.

Cases of the lager ran out a week and a half before a new month’s supply from Pittsburgh Brewing Co. was ready.

Customers were angry, but Aaron Easler and Ian George were elated.

The two 2015 Edinboro graphic design alumni work at Top Hat, the Millvale, Pa.-based creative marketing agency that redesigned Iron City Beer and its sister brands just over a year ago.

With the brewery ramping up production to meet demand, the Top Hat team knew the updated branding had worked, because the formula for the beer hadn’t change.

“This is something where we knew the success or failure of what we did was going to be pretty apparent,” said Easler, Top Hat’s creative director, explaining the crisp lines of the new red and yellow circular logo on a white background. “We tried to make it something that every piece of it was new, but people might look at it and think it’s just like what it’s been forever.”

The rebranding won the agency a national Silver Anvil Award and two honorable mentions from the Public Relations Society of America, two design awards from the Pittsburgh chapter of American Institute of Graphic Arts, and 12 Renaissance Awards from the Pittsburgh PRSA, who honored Easler as “Entrepreneur of the Year.”

The brewery is one in a range of Top Hat’s clients from nonprofits to start-ups.

“We’re all really fortunate to be working on the type of projects and with the type of clients that you hope to ‘maybe someday’ work with at some point in your career,” Easler said.

George said the open, honest atmosphere makes Top Hat feel like a true team.

“Other places I’ve worked at … you just kind of felt in the dark a lot of times, whereas here, I constantly feel up to speed on everything,” he said.

Easler grew up in Allison Park, a Pittsburgh suburb, and created graphics for go-karts as a teenager.

“I was going to start working at a print shop right out of high school,” he said. “The designer there was like, ‘You aren’t going to be able to get a job at any of the big agencies in Pittsburgh if you don’t have a college degree,’ so I went home and said, ‘All right, Mom, I’m going to college.’”

He visited Edinboro and was hooked by the quality of student work on display.

“It looked promising and impressive, and like something I wanted to be a part of,” Easler said.

At one point, he lived across the hall of an off-campus apartment building from George, who grew up in Mercer, Pa.

George was influenced in part by his dad’s experience as a watercolor artist but was drawn to graphics more than fine art.

His dad, Stephen, attended Edinboro in the 1970s and his brother, Philip, graduated with a degree in elementary and special education in 2010.

“Right off the bat, I knew that it was the right place to go,” George said.

As a student, the way graphic design is “meshed” within Edinboro’s art department helped George earn an appreciation for other media, like his minor concentrations in printmaking and wood furniture.

“I think you learn a lot by exploring things outside of design,” he said. “I liked getting to do more hands-on kinds of art classes and projects, and I think they influenced each other.”

Design doesn’t always lead to one prescribed career path, or one way to solve a problem.

“We are pretty flexible in terms of what we’re willing to attempt to do, and figure out how to do that for clients when the task calls for it,” Easler said.

Ben Butler, who founded Top Hat in 2013 before he graduated from college, said each person on the six-person staff brings something different to the team.

The agency’s projects come together when Easler uses his business savvy and design experience to complement George’s illustrations and motion graphics alongside the rest of the team.

“We’re like a stew,” Butler said. “Every one of these guys is a core ingredient that has radically made the dish even better.”