Doin’ It After Dark. Creatives who don’t stop when the sun goes down.

A new interview series.

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One hot night, a friend and I were hangin’ in my bedroom. One thing led to the next, and we found ourselves gettin’ kinda busy…

No, not that kinda busy, but you know, the regular busy of surfing the web. Actually, it was more like one of those obsessive web sessions where you go from one page to the next article to the next image to Facebook to MySpace (ha, just kidding, what nerd still rocks MySpace!). Anyways, I stumbled across a lovely string of Flickr images that I absolutely needed for my personal stash of researched (aka stolen) web images. Here’s one of the images I swiped…

The next day at work, I was talking with a coworker who was waiting for an important call from, none other than, Chronicle Books. I asked what for, and he said that he was looking to get a book published. I inquired on what, and, he said vintage beer can photography. Mother effin’ right! Turns out that those slew of Flickr images were all his. It’s a very small web world, I suppose. Anyways, cutting to the chase, may I introduce to you my buddy Lance Wilson, and his buddy Dan Becker, and, they’re gettin’ a book published on vintage beer can photography…

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How did you come across these old, beat up beer cans?

Dan: Honestly, I didn’t even know they existed until my stepdad starting putting up a bunch of shelves in our basement to display the collection. I would look at them every now and again, but I didn’t think much about it until I went back in the basement a year or so after he had finished and saw just how many there actually were. Since my parents are moving in a year or two, they talked about selling them — which I guess sent a prompt to photograph them before they were all gone.

What is it about these beer cans that inspire you?

Lance: I’d have to say the typography and illustrations on the cans are what drew us to want to photograph them in the first place. That, and the quality and level of detail in some of the cans that were produced generations before computers is just remarkable.

Dan: Yeah definitely the type and illustrations. It’s crazy considering this stuff is actually garbage, or recyclables here in San Francisco. Somehow these cans avoided being left in a landfill and ended up being treated so preciously for so many years – which I guess makes me think of the objects around me a little differently.

Do you have a favorite can?

Lance: I’d have to say either Rainier Old Stock Ale or Gleuk’s Pilsener Pale. Their typography is beautifully unique and they have a character that beer cans today just don’t.

Dan: Yeah Rainier and Gleuk are definitely up there. And, I guess the one with my last name [Becker] on it, just because.

Why did you decide to put a book together (rather than just sticking to the world wide web)?

Lance: The idea of a publishing a book never initially crossed our minds. We had talked about photographing the cans one day in our free time, and when we finally found time to do so, we ended up with 160 photographs – a small fraction of the entire collection. We thought the cans were a great visual collection of vintage packing and typography and we wanted to share them with anyone who might appreciate them. So we put the photos up on flickr, and submitted the link to a few blogs, not really knowing what would become of it. The cans generated a lot of attention in a short amount of time, including that of Chronicle’s.

How did you get hooked up with Chronicle Books?

Dan: It was one of those – know someone who knows someone else – type of things. I was working at Pentagram at the time and Leah Koransky put me in touch with Allison Weiner, who was working at Chronicle. After a bit of talking, Chronicle pitched the book idea to us, and we’ve been running with it for the better part of a year now.

Is there an actual process to getting a book published?

Lance: Definitely. A good portion of the process is driven by the publisher, and working with Chronicle has given us insight into all the steps and people involved. As we have discovered, working on a book of this size requires a great deal of foresight, organization and planning, and Dan and I have had to work very closely in both creating and extensively editing written and visual content.

Have their been any hoops or hurdles?

Lance: Plenty — the biggest of which was probably finding time to do all the work. The grueling three day photo-shoot of 1,400+ cans spanning more than 36 hours was the easy part. Finding information for all of the cans, such as the brewery, city and decade they each came from was a monumental task – one which we couldn’t have done without the help of Dan’s stepdad, Josh Russo, the owner of the collection.

When and where do we expect to see this book? More importantly, will there be a party?

Dan: As of now, the book is scheduled to hit shelves in the Spring of 2011 and should be available in Barnes & Nobles, Urban Outfitters, Amazon.com — just about everywhere. There have been talks of a book launching party, and we hope to make that happen. A local brewery in San Francisco should be a fitting location…

And, the burning question, how many beers does it take for you to get drunk?

Dan: It depends, how many you are buying me?

Lance: Let’s just say that the 500 in our book were more than enough to give me the equivalent of a very long hangover.

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What’s your name: Dan Becker
What do you do: Designer
Favorite typeface: Clarendon
Website: www.thinksmartnothard.com

What’s your name: Lance Wilson
What do you do: Designer
Favorite typeface: Trade Gothic
Website: www.elancewilson.com

Oh, and, here’s a link to the ultimate beer can collection…and if you know anyone who owns a brewpub in SF and wants to host a party, hit us up!

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Thanks for doin’ it!

- Ashley