Alien Invasion IPA

FEBRUARY 2026

A 4-hour design challenge, following this brief: Design the graphic treatment for 2 IPA cans with the theme of "Allien Invasion." A West Coast IPA with the theme "We Come In Peace" and an East Coast IPA with the theme "Hostile Takeover."

Immediately, I thought of "glorp," a green alien cat that has been a sensational internet meme recently. I wanted to take this challenge down a fun and experimental route and test the limits of my vector illustration skills. IPA's usually experiment a lot with the visuals on their cans, so I wanted art that would resonate with a younger auidence that is more in tune with pop culture.

Starting with the West Coast IPA, I wanted to exemplify the whimsical nature of this project, I thought of fun shapes such as stars and sparkles. I even added small swirls to the green "Alien Invasion" logotype. I also learned a technique with gradient transparency to make shapes look like prismatic bubbles. I made these bubbly stars multiple pastel colours to establish a friendly creature and scene.

For the East Coast IPA, I basically took the West Coast IPA and made everything... red. Everything is on fire, the alien from hell is destroying the land and summoning meteors! I also changed the swirls in the "Alien Invasion" logotype into little flames.

Afterwards, I showed this project to several of my friends and they recognized the "glorp" alien cat! We called it "glorp beer."