- Published on
Digital coaster collection
- Authors
- Name
- Matt Morris
Welcome to my digital coaster collection. It's at 104 coasters and counting, from 13 different US states, and 7 countries. Click on a coaster to flip it over to the other side!
This project is one of my favorites. In addition to being a fun frontend web development project, it was also a great opportunity to closely inspect and appreciate the variety of graphical design featured on each unique coaster, and learn about the companies that create them — as I took pictures of both sides of every coaster, edited them into their various shapes, and thought about how to organize them.
I used the React Framer Motion library to create the animated flippable coaster image component. Read more about the development process here.
History of coasters
There are many types of coasters. Some are made of wood, metal or glass – the type you might buy at Crate & Barrel. The ones I collect are the most common variety: little slabs of cardboard, usually circular or rectangular, found wherever drinks are served and beyond— which have served as a canvas for a wide variety of graphic designs throughout the years.
In the 1800s, breweries realized they needed something cheaper than ceramic or wood to protect their tabletops, when an entrepreneurial miller/brewer named Casimir Otto Katz recognized the value in a new patented method for using all the extra wood pulp left over from sawing lumber.
Coasters became a cheap and effective marketing tool to promote the companies that used and distributed them. Today, the The Katz Group still produces around 75% of the world's paper coasters (check out the full story on Eater).
Coaster graphic design & brand marketing
Coasters are fun and functional. Brewers and other business give them to bars and restaurants for free within their intended markets, and use graphic design and copywriting to attract attention, convey their brand, and most importantly invite people to try the product. I'm amazed at all the creativity and skill demonstrated on coasters. It's also interesting to see the brand collaborations that have happened over the years, with sponsorships around sports teams, charitable causes, events, etc. Coasters turn a basic necessity into something beautiful, unique, purposeful, and representative of a time and place — a collectible work of commercial art.
McMenamins
McMenamins deserves a special callout for its beautifully designed coasters that rise above in terms of artistic skill, complexity, and originality – a spirit that is exemplified in its many establishments throughout the Pacific Northwest. The company takes old properties, like a school or temple, and transforms them into a bar/restaurant/hotel/cafe featuring impressive architecture, interior design and artwork. They also make their own beer, cider, liquor, wine, and coffee.
Pacific coasting
I've done most of my collecting around my home stomping grounds on the upper-left coast:
Budweiser and Anheuser-Busch InBev
Anheuser-Busch has a rich history of coaster distribution:
ABInbev has diversified into different business models and styles of making beer. With the rise of the microbrewery movement in the '90s and '00s, it joined other big brewers in diversifying through the acquisition of craft microbreweries like 10 Barrel in 2014 and Elysian in 2015.
The Craft Brew Alliance
The Craft Brew Alliance was founded in Portland, Oregon in 2008 with the merger of Redhook Ale Brewery and Widmer Brothers Brewery. It acquired Kona Brewing Company in 2010, and has acquired a few more microbreweries since then. The company now hovers around the top ten largest brewers in the United States and has operated under a distribution agreement with AB InBev including partial equity.
A growing collection
I'm always delighted to find a new coaster. Here are some more fine specimens I've found along the way:
Regarding the representation of copyrighted coaster designs featured in this post:
I claim fair use as the purpose of this article is purely informational, comparative and non-commercial. All of the coaster images were taken by me.