CRAFT by Under My Host® Issue No. 15 Classics | Page 2

then. There was one lonely Mikkeller bottle at my lo-
cal shop, and it had a crude drawing of Mikkel [Borg
Bjergsø] on it. I made a short list of breweries I wanted
to collaborate with, and Mikkeller was actually the first
one I emailed.”
Shore and Bjergsø eventually met in Philadelphia and
discussed the possibility of working together. After
what Shore calls, “a couple of months of badgering
via email,” Bjergsø hired him to do make the label for I
Hardcore You, a collaboration with Brew Dog.
That first label was Shore putting his fingerprint on the
brand. Today, he leads it. His characters, Henry and Sal-
ly, are not only synonymous with the brand, but they
are two of the most recognizable people in the beer in-
dustry.
“I had been working on the male character a bit be-
fore I ever contacted Mikkeller,” said Shore. “He didn’t
have a name then. He was just a dude with a hat that
I enjoyed drawing. I felt if I developed characters and
people connected with them that I would keep getting
hired on to make more labels.”
Those feelings proved correct, and he continued to
be hired to create more labels. Then, in 2013, he was
brought on as the full-time Mikkeller Art Director.
COVER ARTIST PROFILE: KEITH SHORE
By Colin Joliat
Keith Shore’s work with Mikkeller started with one
hardcore beer label, but it has grown into a worldwide
artistic empire.
Shore has been drawing since childhood, beginning
with everyone’s favorite, the Garbage Pail Kids. The
large-scale colored pencil drawings he created weren’t
just taped to the fridge and forgotten after a week. His
mother matted and saved them all.
After realizing during high school that art could actually
be a career, Shore began school at the Massachusetts
College of Art. It wasn’t a straight line from orientation
to graduation though, with Shore bouncing around to
three different schools.
“I never liked school,” said Shore. “I think that’s mostly
because I didn’t have a clear direction on where I want-
ed to end up afterward. But during my junior year I did
some illustrations for a skateboarding magazine, and
after a summer internship with them, they promised me
a post-graduation design job.”
The job working with Heckler, wouldn’t last long, but at
that point, Shore was off to the races. He did freelance
work for publications like Mark Ecko’s Complex and
even created merchandise for The Shins. It was at this
time that Shore’s interest in beer began growing, both
for its assumed purpose and for the labels themselves.
“In my opinion,” opined Shore, “there wasn’t a lot of ex-
citing art and design happening in this industry back
© Hundred-to-One LLC 2017. All rights reserved.
“I never imagined things would grow to where they
stand now,” said Shore. “Back then I just wanted to
make as many labels as I could.”
This new role expands far beyond labels for Shore. He’s
responsible for branding, merchandise, and the look
and feel of Mikkeller’s 32 different bars around the
world. All the extra work doesn’t mean he’s released his
grip on the label maker though. He’s still creating over
150 labels per year.
Bjergsø and Shore have also found a way to expand the
art beyond the can and onto the wall through their new
project, “Mikkeller Editions.” The shop currently con-
sists of 10 screen-prints and risograph prints with more
on the way.
“My goal is to make our artwork available and collect-
ible,” said Shore. “All of the art we release will only be
available in limited editions, and everything is hand
signed & numbered.”
These new pieces should look nice when matted and
hung next to his Garbage Pail Kids drawings. Much like
Shore’s legacy of drawing has come full circle, so might
“Mikkeller Editions.” What started as an art project
could lead to its own series of “Editions” beers, prov-
ing that it doesn’t matter if you put the cart before the
horse so long as both of them are awesome.
And finally, because good things come in threes, the
cover Shore created for this issue is also a callback. The
design is based on a label he and Mikkeller created for
Kihoskh, a small shop in Copenhagen. The inspiration
comes from a scene in When Harry Met Sally, which
just so happens to be the origin of Shore’s famed char-
acters’ names. It’s a perfect way to kick off CRAFT’s is-
sue of “Classics.”