Every year, upwards of 50,000 of beer lovers congregate at the Great Australasian Beer Spectacular (aka GABS), an annual festival event held in cities across Australia and New Zealand. Part trade show, part giant party; it's THE place for breweries and cider producers to showcase their products.
Our client, Pirate Life, wanted a couple of inflatable beer can replicas in the style of their signature brew (South Coast Pale Ale), to help them stand out in this chaotic mob. Large custom inflatables are a great way to do this! GABS is an ideal opportunity for a relatively small operation like our client’s to gain brand exposure. We were thrilled to be able to help them out with that by doing what we do best.
We assured them we’d have no problem at all crafting exactly what they were looking for — and got right to work!
Two Giant Inflatable Beer Can Replicas, Coming Right Up!
When Pirate Life contacted us, we knew exactly what they wanted. Their order: 2 inflatable South Coast Pale Ales beer can replicas. Coming right up! They even gave us a bit of a head start by providing us with a modified design of the can artwork, which they felt would help the brand stand out better.
While all our inflatables at Inflatable Anything are custom bespoke projects, inflatable beer can replicas are something we’ve been doing for years successfully. Beers, ciders, soft drinks, we’ve done them all.
Because of the client’s preparation and our prior experience, the design process was pretty straightforward. Once we agreed on the dimensions — 1.2m (W) x 2m (H) — and the material (polyester) we were ready to resize the image and get started with printing.
Applying the Label and Lid
For this project, as with most of our can replicas, we did a full surface print on polyester panels for both the label and the lid design. For a full surface print the fabric is laid flat and the entire image is applied at once. This method works really well with polyester and results in a crisp, clear image with vivid colours. That’s especially important at a festival, where the inflatable replica needs to be as eye-catching as possible!
We were able to achieve an incredibly realistic look for the lid of the can. Even though this isn’t typically the part people are looking at, we made sure every detail was perfect. That’s just how we do things around here! And because the client had given us plenty of time for this project, we were able to really go the extra mile with attention to detail.
Putting It Together
Once the printing was complete, we followed the usual procedure, sewing together the pieces to form the can shape — including a carefully-crafted, realistic rim. Polyester is ideal for this purpose as it doesn’t wrinkle the way some other materials can. The result? Two awesome-looking giant inflatable beer can replicas. Thanks to the choice of material and the meticulous, high-quality work done by our team, they’ll be durable enough for repeated use at a variety of events.
All polyester inflatables need a blower to stay inflated and maintain internal air pressure. When it comes to choosing the type of blower (internal or external), we take into account the client’s needs and preferences as well as the design of the inflatable. For these inflatable beer can replicas, we went with an external blower.
Lastly, even with a design we’ve done many times before, we always do a functional test of the final product before delivery. We make sure it inflates and deflates the way it should and doesn’t have any manufacturing flaws. (Imagine showing up at a festival excited to set up, only to find you’ve been sold a defective product! We’d never let that happen.)
Watching the finished product ‘come to life’ as it inflates to its full size is pretty awesome. Honestly, it never gets old. It adds that little moment of fun and excitement to our day, and gives us the chance to truly appreciate the fruits of our labour. This is where we pat ourselves on the back and say “Job well done!”.
Serving Up The Order
It’s incredibly satisfying to present a product to a client when you know it’s absolutely top-notch work, perfect down to the tiniest detail. Thanks to the client’s great organisation and communication, and our team’s excellent work, that’s exactly what we were able to do. Pirate Life was thrilled with their inflatable beer can replicas and ready to make a splash at the festival!
