The proliferation of craft beers has yielded a broad mix of art to accompany the scientific brewing process. The canvas? The can itself - or, in the case of bottled beer, the label. Brewers, after all, hope to entice customers to choose their brands from among the ever-growing number of choices in the typical supermarket. "Beer labels used to be an afterthought," said Mira Lee, a co-owner of the Actual Brewing Co. on the East Side with her husband, Fred.

The proliferation of craft beers has yielded a broad mix of art to accompany the scientific brewing process.

The canvas? The can itself � or, in the case of bottled beer, the label.

Brewers, after all, hope to entice customers to choose their brands from among the ever-growing number of choices in the typical supermarket.

�Beer labels used to be an afterthought,� said Mira Lee, a co-owner of the Actual Brewing Co. on the East Side with her husband, Fred.

�(But) brewers and breweries are now taking the aesthetics seriously.�

>>> Beer in central Ohio: Find all our coverage here

Some artists spin a story with a design; others tell a joke.

Regardless, the personality prevails.

So, todayLife & Arts takes a closer look at the art on a sampling of homegrown brews.

ACTUAL BREWING

East Side

Designer: Mira Lee, a co-founder of the brewery

Style: �People say it�s art deco, but they often overlook the medieval manuscript,�p p p p p p p she said. �I�m merging the 1500s and the 1920s � which is difficult to do.

�Each has an animal and a woman and at least one science joke on it. They are all built out of fairy tales � some more than others.�

Inspiration: The influences include silent-film stars and circus performers, burlesque and theater.

�I work from reference photos from the historical past. Some of the girls (on the bottles) are friends, wives, women I have sit for photos.�

Process: With a name selected by her team, she chooses a color and an animal. Research consumes most of her designing time, given the usual difficulty in finding a decent photo of an animal. With ideas in hand, she begins the illustration on a computer.

�Breweries don�t typically design for women, but I think beer is genderless. This industry has been slow to recognize that roughly one-third of craft-beer customers are women.�

Notable designs: The purple design for Eccentricity, a French ale, features an okapi � a nod to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, which boasts a few such animals � and a circus-type performer.

She also enjoys the playful Wiener-Munchen, a festival ale � for which she drew a dachshund and a sausage-grilling woman.

FOUR STRING BREWING

North of Grandview Heights

Designer: Dave Butler of Art of the Midwest in Granville, in collaboration with brewery owner Dan Cochran

Style: �The influences I try to project to Dave,� Cochran said, �are gritty rock �n � roll and that independence.�

Butler tries to ensure that a theme doesn�t become tacky or go overboard with a parody.

�We�re investing time in telling these stories like you would on a leather-jacket patch or a tattoo,� he said. �Not everything has to be guitars and drumsticks. It�s a broad look at the culture.�

Inspiration: Topping the list is rock music, of course � thanks to childhood friends and former band mates Butler, a singer and drummer, and Cochran, a bass player.

Process: �It�s very much a back-and-forth play,� Butler said. �It tends to happen really fast. We don�t overthink things.�

Notable designs: �Suncaster (a wheat beer) has that good vibration, summer feel, that lighter side of rock,� Butler said. �Brass Knuckle (a pale ale) is that everyday blue-collar ale � that grit.�

HOOF HEARTED BREWING

Marengo in Morrow County, with a brewpub in the Short North

Designer: Thom Lessner, a native of Westerville and freelance artist in Philadelphia

Style: �We�re creating these irreverent, whimsical, nonsensical characters who mean nothing to anyone but us,� said Brayden Volk, head of logistics.

�But at the end of the day, they�re still making people laugh. It�s unadulterated, and we�re just a bunch of ding-dongs who want people to embrace that and have fun.�

Inspiration: References from childhood, which Lessner shared with co-owners Trevor Williams and Jarrod and Ryan Bichon, dominate.

�We loved �80s screwball comedies � bad movies that were amazing in their own right � or outrageous music,� Lessner said. �We�re not trying to bring it back but celebrate that it�s in us."

Process: After �rapping� with the co-owners, Lessner starts drawing.

�Everything starts as a sketch,� he said. �Sometimes it�s a painting; sometimes it�s a screen print. Then I fill in on the computer with color. I used to be a painter.�

Notable designs: One logo has a Dodge Daytona modeled on a founder�s first car, bought with money earned from a newspaper route.

Tub Life, a farmhouse pale ale, depicts rapper Tupac Shakur eating cereal in a tub; Rose Gose taps a love of the film �Dirty Dancing� and bone-dry rose wine.

JACKIE O�S BREWERY

Athens

Designers: various Athens artists � although the flagship cans feature woodcarving designs by Bryn Perrott and the most recent seasonal offerings are traced to cartoonist Chris Monday, a worker in the taproom

Style: Perrott goes for earthy and whimsical � as with a forest goddess-like creature for Mystic Mama, an India pale ale � while Monday draws on sci-fi and comic-book themes. Both looks seem closer to those of soft or energy drinks.

Inspiration: �We wanted to use a woodworker because the juxtaposition of the metal and the wood art is a neat concept,� said Brad Clark, director of brewing operations.

�Wood is a big part of Jackie O�s. There�s the barrel in our logo.�

Process: For the first few cans released, the brewery mimicked existing woodcarvings.

�We started playing with them,� Clark said. �We put a striking color with a black background. Some are exactly what she (Perrott) already had, some we added to, and a few she actually made for us � mainly the Razz Wheat. It�s a buck, and the antlers are raspberry bushes.�

Notable design: For the �far-out� New Growth, a summer spruce-tip IPA with a bold design, Clark and Monday invented a stegosaurus-type creature with spruce trees as the plates on its back.

�It�s one of the most interactive cans,� Clark said. �It grabs people.�

LAND-GRANT BREWING

Franklinton neighborhood

Designer: Walt Keys, the creative director � who pursued graphics design before opening the brewery with college pal Adam Benner

Style: �It�s sort of a vintage feel,� Keys said. �We want it to feel like a label you�d see on a beer can from the 1940s. It�s timeless and not necessarily tied to design trends in 2016 or even 1992.�

Inspiration: The two recall their days at Ohio State University, which was formed by the Land-Grant College Act of 1862.

�It�s a calculated strategy to tie in the land-grant-college vibe,� Keys said. �We reference sports and things we�re into. I use old football programs and sports illustrations.�

Process: After nailing down a name, he mocks up a rough draft on a computer, then turns to paper and a black marker.

�When it�s hand-drawn, it�s nice and consistent. You get similar lines and weight.�

Notable designs: Stiff-Arm IPA, the flagship beer, shows a football player using the tackle-evading technique.

Mister Balloon Hands, a limited-release mixed-berry wheat, depicts �this goofy, sort-of-Victorian man with balloon hands,� Keys said.

�You only get to do this in the beer world � not the outside design world.�