The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA), located in downtown San Antonio, is housed in the historic Lone Star Brewery and presents exhibitions spanning 5,000 years of global history. In summer 2023, SAMA launched Still Brewing Art, a special exhibition exploring the legacy of the Lone Star Brewery and San Antonio’s history as a brewery city. Featuring posters, artifacts, photographs, and site plans dating back to 1976, the exhibition honored the brewery’s past while celebrating the city’s brewing heritage and its connection to the San Antonio River.
Still Brewing Up
Project Overview
While working as a Digital Designer at Noisy Trumpet Communications, I contributed to the Still Brewing Art campaign by creating a range of digital assets used across multiple platforms. This one-time, limited-run exhibition was positioned as a must-see exploration of the San Antonio Museum of Art’s past as the Lone Star Brewery. Through a cohesive visual identity and tailored messaging, the campaign aimed to reach new audiences, educate the public, drive ticket sales, and ultimately convert first-time visitors into museum members through innovative, engaging design.
My Role:
Designer/ Collaborator
Apps Used:
Discovery & Research
With this campaign, I wanted to incorporate SAMA’s rich history that which is rooted in water, industry, and beer. With SAMA’s now home originally, the Lone Star Brewery—Texas’s first large, mechanized brewery opened in 1884—the site reflects the Golden Age of American Brewing and the influence of figures like Adolphus Busch. After Prohibition ended, the brewery’s operations, the complex was later transformed into the San Antonio Museum of Art, opening in 1981 with the slogan “We’re Brewing Art.”
Today, Still Brewing Art draws on this layered history as design inspiration, blending industrial heritage, brewing culture, and the museum’s evolving identity into a visual narrative that connects past and present.
Visual System & Design Execution
I approached this design by visually merging SAMA’s dual identity as both a former brewery and a contemporary art museum. The concept centers on still brewing—not just beer, but culture, history, and art—using collage as a metaphor for layers of time and transformation.
I began by anchoring the composition with the historic Lone Star Brewery building, grounding the piece in place and heritage. From there, I introduced brewing elements—hops, a foaming beer glass, and vintage bottle imagery—to reference the site’s industrial past. The beer glass, held front and center, acts as a focal point and symbol of invitation, drawing viewers into the experience much like the exhibition itself.
Bold, high-contrast colors and textured backgrounds were inspired by vintage brewery posters, while the playful scale shifts and overlapping elements reflect a contemporary, museum-forward design sensibility. This balance of old and new mirrors the exhibition’s narrative: honoring history while reinterpreting it through a modern lens.
Overall, the design was crafted to feel energetic, celebratory, and slightly unexpected—capturing attention across digital platforms while visually telling the story of how SAMA is, quite literally, Still Brewing Art.
Results
The campaign delivered impactful results, generating over 834,000 impressions across a diverse mix of platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, Google Performance Max, sponsored social, public relations, and YOLO placements. This multi-channel approach ensured broad visibility and consistent messaging across both digital and traditional touchpoints.
In addition to reach, the campaign drove meaningful engagement, resulting in 614 conversions and more than 1,400 website sessions. The collaboration between SAMA and Noisy Trumpet successfully celebrated the museum’s heritage while producing measurable outcomes, demonstrating the power of strategic design and targeted marketing and setting a strong benchmark for future campaigns.