Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tyler Hood . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tyler , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

First of all, every project has a meaningful weight for me, some more than other’s that for sure, but every project week by week is meaningful. I’ve got 3 projects that jump to mind. Each one truly holding a deep rooted bond to my heart, my community, and Austin, Texas.

Kicking It: If i recall properly it was on of my first projects/beer collabs ever with Austin Beerworks, and Kicking It. KI is an Austin born, austin rooted sneaker social, serving beer with outstanding culture, and an even deeper culture/love for the community. That’s what drove me to work with them on a larger scale. Their community focus and artistic vision of creating more than a shoe shop, is what it’s all about, it’s about the people. After talking with owner Dr. Greg Grovey and his right hand man Colin Teagle, we came up with “I love brews so much” (like the iconic joes coffee wall, and KI’s “I love shoes so much” concept) we decided to create a custom beer can, merch, release party at Kicking It, with nothing short of a good time and proceeds going to one of the after school programs in Austin “Afterschool4all”. It was a blast, i reached out to my friend Bobby Dixon (Creative Director, Industry Print Shop) to help out with art. I created the can art/design, and Bobby helped creating a Kicking Can logo man, while i curated merch, koozies and glassware. It’s special looking back on the times, everyone came together to create such an amazing once in a lifetime event. It’s what we embody at Austin Beerworks, and it was a testament to our ABW mantra of Quality of Beer, Quality of Life.

Slobby Daze: This was Wild. Slobby Robby is a huge vintage collector, cool human, and a down to earth celebrity. We ended up meeting randomly while i was on road trip back to Texas about 3 years ago. Long story short, we wanted to create a dope event at ABW. Fast forward to last year, i wanted to launch a small Vintage pop up at ABW for SXSW. We usually don’t do much for SXSW, and turns out the first year was a hit and we pulled it off with our local Austin, Texas friends that run Outhyped, and curated their market called Market Daze. The following year we stepped it up to Slobby Daze! A combination of the Market Daze meets Slobby Robby meets ABW. We brewed up a fresh Strawberry cider for the people, created some once in a lifetime merchandise, had a market of 25+ vendors one booth being Rob’s, live mural painting, live dj, live tattooing, and grew the event with the community even bigger this year than before. It’s one of the coolest events I’ve put on, and once again it’s just the community coming out and supporting that does my heart so good. As someone told me that day “This just feels like the Old Austin community and I love it!”

Lunar New Years at Austin Beerworks: This project was created by Will Golden Co-Owner of Austin Beerworks and Chris Gomez of Kaiju Cut and Sew 3 years ago. Both very dear friends, this event has a special place in my heart. It’s celebration of Austin’s AAPI community, and beyond! We work with artists, Alana Louise Lyons (Fly Fishing and Design legend) and Bobby Dixon (Creative Director Industry Print Shop) to creatively pay homage to the year’s celebration. A group of us get together every year to talk concept over food and drink, and this past year we even added another brewery to the mix out of Seattle, WA (Lucky Envelope brewing). On my end, i curate and design the merchandise and Social media images/posting for the event. With artists like Bobby and Alana, it always makes my job a bit easier, but i try my best to create eye catching shirts, 90’s style glassware, dope hats, bandanas, stickers, and even items like chopsticks or dice have been around the past years. Every year there is an awe-inspiring Dragon and Lion Dance, surrounded by over a thousand folks and family coming out to support, its community, beer, and beauty in its purest form. It’s damn special.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Tyler Hood, I manage merchandise and marketing at Austin Beerworks. I’ve curated ABW’s taproom merchandise at both locations (ABW, Sprinkle Valley), along with our online store, instagrams (@austinbeerworks, @abwcantina) and the occasional community collab or event. That being said i work with a handful of truly talented and amazing people on a day to day basis, and I could in no way do what i do with out them.

I’ve been in the Texas craft beer industry for almost a decade now. Damn, that’s wild to think. Before beer, it was music, i was blessed and lucky enough to travel and play music (drums) for a texas country band from the age of 20-25, and i feel in love with craft beer along every small town bend and big city show. I started home brewing in my off time with some of my best friends. I pretty much gave up music to be more settled down in Austin and started cutting my teeth assistant brewing with Red Horn Coffee House and Brewing Company in Cedar Park, Texas in 2015. Lord knows I can talk for hours about the unforgettable people, the memorable beers, and the non-stop ruckus of countless good times and late nights, but i digress. In the summer of 2017 i got hired at Austin Beerworks, with aspirations of working at a bigger brewery, and joining their sour beer program. The company had always had industry titans that i looked up too, and the coolest thing now is they are tight friends as well as co-workers. I worked in packaging for a few years with some of my best friends from high school, and made the occasional pilot beer. Zoltan Yuzu Sour, and The Ol’ wake n’ Bake, Imperial Stout w/ honey buns and coconut are my all time favorites.

I then did Cellaring work for a short period of time, before our merchandise department became open. After a short talk with Will our co-owner, that was my next step at ABW. Along with the merch, my boss Co-Owner Michael Graham allowed me to run our company instagram, which was insanely humbling on many levels, as he’s smartest man with words I’ve ever encountered in my life. His dad joke rolodex is infinite, and i stay humbled and grateful to work with him on a day to day basis. Now it’s been about two and a half years since those times and a a continuous rubber band ball of beautiful, creative, controlled chaos of tshirts, promos, hats and good times ever since!!

I’ve always loved people, community, good beer, low fashion, nice kicks, the holy trinity (football, baseball, basketball), texas bbq, stock graphs, vintage items, and mary jane. That’s undoubtedly who i am. I take inspiration from every walk of life, and honestly every moment. From the McDonald’s double cheese burger plain, to the high end peppercorn sauce on the side dry aged rib eye, i love it all and everything in between. Creativity surrounds and embellishes all of us at every second of the day and i thrive in that. Sometimes it’s happy, or sad, black or white, or beaming with color and sadness at the same time, it’s all beauty. And i love every f#%^’n refraction of it.

When it comes to products or services in my mindset everything is limitless. I always want to know how crazy you can take what you’re working on. How can we make things better, cooler, more innovative, more fashionable yet ergonomic? What is the limit? There isn’t one – but we should always be mindful in knowing what are goal is and what we are trying to achieve in every product launch, instagram post, or conversation. It’s not always perfect, and i don’t think everything should be. I think we should strive for perfection in every moment of life, but i love the beauty in the flaws, the upside down, and unique. I cant help but recall a project we did with a local pilot when he said “Any plane can do a barrel roll, you just need the right pilot.”

What I’m most proud of is being able to grow my own flow of creativity and working with the right people. It’s really the people that’s it. The relationships, the friendships that I’m forever grateful for in this industry. Craft beer is filled with some of the kindness, craziest, and coolest people on the earth. Ive been able to foster some of my best times in life over the years. Now merch/marketing is an even bigger step forward in that, from seeing the raw excitement on someone’s face when they see a new merch drop, to families wanting there’s kids to wear ABW, to comments on posts, to seeing the merch I’ve made out on the town in Austin and beyond. It’s all nothing short of a blessing to be a part of and I’m forever grateful to ABW to giving this big guy an opportunity. That being said there’s still so, so much more to do, get better on, elevate, look at differently, mamba mentality, and explore. All while staying true to myself, family, and friends.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I think the key is simply being yourself. If you’re a goofball be that, if you’re serious keep those smiles low. You like cheeseburgers? Then start taking dope pics of those ooy gooy burger bombs all over town. Gothic perfume brand, black and white pics all day. You just gotta fully lean into what you’re going for. If you’re working for a brand, embody what that brand is and stay true to its lifestyle, text, feel, colors, and energy.

Then there’s the basic tag the places, hit the hashtags, follow other folks like you, comment, engage, eat it all up at every angle. It can be a beast so be easy on yourself as well. If you’re doing social out of passion (hopefully that’s the case) and you really care about what you’re taking pictures of and talking about. It’s always cool to just talk to the folks in that industry. I’m a sucker for always asking questions when i don’t know things, which is more often than not. It would surprise you how many doors that can open up in not only social media, but life. You never know who you could be talking to, or what cool opportunity life could have for you around the next corner.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Dope goods and cool objects at a reasonable price for everyone in the community. Everyone deserves to look good. “When you look good, you feel good, you play good”. – Deion Sanders. We all know how expensive this city has gotten and anyway to be able to cut cost without sacrificing quality is the mission, for the people.

In this vein, i launched a program in August last year at ABW called “Ten Buck Trucks” it’s simply a $10 Texas Trucker Hat with a cool ABW patch on it, handmade by myself. It’s like a cheap pair of beach sunglasses, but a dope hat. On top of just a reasonably priced classic trucker; once a year we’ll be donating $1 from every trucker sold to an Austin charity of our choice. It’s a fun program that I’m stoked to have created, and be able to give back to the community through.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://austinbeerworks.brist.store/
• Instagram: @austinbeerworks @Brisketsandgravy @abwcantina @obsidanbrewing
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tyler.hood.79/