KCAD Senior's Design to Appear on Alaska Beer Label This Summer
A Kendall College of Art and Design senior will see her artwork on store shelves in Alaska this summer after winning a beer label design contest for a nonprofit search-and-rescue organization.
Ally Grant, a graduating illustration major from Fairbanks, Alaska, beat out 80 submissions from 72 artists worldwide to design the label for a new pale ale from Denali Brewing Company, brewed in partnership with Denali Rescue Volunteers (DRV), a Talkeetna, Alaska-based nonprofit. A three-panel vote — drawn from the public, the DRV board and Denali Brewing — selected her design.
Her label features a rescue worker hoisting a beer growler from a helicopter against a snow-capped Alaskan mountainside. She researched gear colors, helicopter models, and equipment details to ensure accuracy — a discipline she traces to her natural science illustration training.
"It's kind of similar to natural science illustration," Grant said. "I have to make sure what I'm depicting is accurate, because that information can be important."
Her family helped coin the beer's name: Denali Rescue Volunteers Saved My Pale Ale.
Grant donated the artwork to DRV, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The 5.5% ABV pale ale is set to roll out later this summer during Alaska's peak tourism season.
To build support during the public vote, Grant posted on Ferris360, the university's campus-wide message board, asking classmates to vote for her entry — a campaign she was not sure would clear moderation given the subject matter.
"I realized, ‘this is an alcoholic beverage. I don't think this is ever going to get approved,’" she worried. "But the next day I saw it posted."
Grant completes her degree in fall 2026, taking two classes as a part-time student while pursuing freelance illustration work. Before that, she begins a six-week artist residency at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute in Grand Rapids this summer.
For Grant, the win represented something more than a Ferris State University degree.
"This was the first time I was judged not based on my resume, not based on my achievements in the past," she said. "This was purely based on my artwork alone."