The Karbach Brewing Company, located in Houston, recently celebrated its victory in the annual Colored by INX Can Design Contest. Its proposal for the Dunkels & Dragons beer was selected as the winner after a combination of votes from an independent jury and public participation on INX’s social media.
Greg Jackson, senior graphic designer at Karbach, highlighted that this award is the result of a creative process that lasted for more than a year, reflecting the team’s commitment and dedication.
Dunkels & Dragons belongs to Karbach’s Fun Series, a line of beers that is characterized by innovating each season with limited editions and exclusive designs to maintain consumer attention. Normally, each beer remains on the market for about three months.
The design of the can, which began in April 2024, was developed by Jackson in collaboration with master brewer Mitchell Sokolis and the brand team. The inspiration came both from the beer itself—a German dark lager—and from a strategy to connect with a specific audience within a subculture. The story behind this beer presents a mythical Dunkel Kingdom, where an ancient griffin named Elder Tap serves a magical beer made with four sacred ingredients, while dragons threaten to take over.
One of the requirements of the contest was to use at least one color from the INX Color Catalog, and the winning design incorporated four shades from this recognized palette, widely used in the metal packaging industry. Jackson noted that this tool facilitated the visualization and selection of colors that would stand out best on the packaging, thus accelerating the process to manufacturing.
He also thanked Daniel Novak, prepress specialist at Ball Corporation, a regular partner in the production of cans for Karbach, who supported the smooth transition from digital design to the final product.
Although there are no plans to relaunch this beer for now, Jackson left the door open to future special editions: “We are not ruling out embarking on a new epic adventure.”
