Redesigning an iconic local beer: Iron City
The best heritage refreshes feel like they’ve always been that way and still feel new. In this clip from You’re Not the Audience, Parliament Creative Director Calvin Ross Carl shares his obsession with the updated look and packaging of Iron City Beer, the classic beer of Pittsburgh, by friend of Parliament Bobby Baker of Leagues Design. He also previews new illustrations from Brett Parson of Bugs Bogey, the mischievous rabbit mascot of Parliament’s deliberately unserious Caddyshack Invitational golf tournament, and the swag the team is designing around him. It’s from the You’re Not the Audience episode on craft and human attention, The Search for Beauty in the Age of Algorithms.
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Outline
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl opens with news and obsessions. First up is the refreshed look and packaging of Iron City Beer, basically the beer of Pittsburgh, by designer Bobby Baker of Leagues Design. Calvin says it nails the heritage and timelessness themes he often discusses: it digs back into what has always worked for the brand, reimagines it, and feels both familiar and new.
Next, he shares fresh illustrations from Brett Parson for Parliament’s annual golf tournament, the Caddyshack Invitational. Brett reimagined the tournament’s rabbit character as Bugs Bogey, a mischievous little golf guy, and Calvin teases tees, ball-marker poker chips, and bumper stickers drawn from a collection of old golf brochures and nods to the movie Caddyshack.
Both stories set up the episode’s larger theme: how to capture the feeling that craft and human attention went into something.
Highlights
Bobby Baker of Leagues Design refreshed Iron City Beer’s look and packaging.
The update feels like it’s always been that way and still feels new.
Brett Parson created Bugs Bogey for Parliament’s Caddyshack Invitational.
Swag draws on vintage golf brochures and Caddyshack references.
Key insights
Heritage refreshes start with what already works
Iron City’s update succeeds by reimagining the brand’s proven elements rather than replacing them.
Craft shows in small whispers
Custom illustration and playful details on everyday items signal that people put real attention into the work.
Side projects keep creativity loose
An unserious golf tournament gives the team an excuse to make goofy, fun things outside client work.
Detailed analysis
The clip pairs a professional example with a personal one. Iron City shows heritage done right at the scale of a regional beer brand, while Bugs Bogey shows the same care applied to an internal event, where vintage reference material and a commissioned illustrator turn simple swag into something people want.
Conclusion
Whether it’s a century-old beer or a golf tournament mascot, Calvin points to visible craft and human attention as the qualities that make work feel worth caring about.
Transcript
News and obsessions. A fun one that I have really been obsessed with: friend of Parliament Bobby Baker is a designer who runs a small agency called Leagues Design, and he just recently did this update to the look and packaging of Iron City Beer, which is an absolute classic. This is basically the beer of Pittsburgh, and it’s been around for a long time, and I have just been obsessed with how this all turned out. I’ve talked a lot about heritage and timelessness on this podcast, or on this live show, whatever we’re doing. And I think they just nailed it. They dug back into what’s always worked for them and kind of reimagined it. It feels like it’s always been this way and somehow also feels new. It looks so good. So shout out to our friend Bobby. Nice guy, great designer, and I love how it turned out. I think this is also going to be very relevant to what we’re talking about today, of how you capture the feeling of craft and that human attention was put into something.
And speaking of craft, and other little whispers of human attention being put into things, we just got illustrations back from illustrator Brett Parson for our annual golf tournament called the Caddyshack Invitational, and the illustrations are super fun. We asked Brett to reimagine this little rabbit character that we’ve used in the past for this golf tournament. It’s a very unserious golf tournament. We’re all terrible. We just use it as a reason to go have some drinks in the morning on a sunny day. So he dropped this character whose name is Bugs Bogey, a mischievous little golf guy. And we’re going to start throwing him all over stuff.
I already started designing a bunch of fun things. Maybe I can toss up a little tease of some of the stuff. I don’t know if we’ll end up making all of this. Let me see if I can find where I put everything. I’ll toss it over here. So I just started designing some tees. The things on the top right are like poker chips that you use to mark where your ball is located while you’re golfing. I designed some bumper stickers. I love “Bugs Bogey, Caddyshack Champion,” or “Help, I shanked my balls at the Caddyshack Invitational.” It’s just super fun to make this stuff. It gives us an excuse to make some goofy stuff.
Oh, looks like Windsor. Yeah. It’s so fun to just dig back. I collected all this imagery of old golf brochures and things like that, and so it’s fun to dig through those and pull some things out. Got some nice little shoutouts like “Be the ball” to the actual Caddyshack movie. So I love how these turned out. Brett did great like he always does. Absolutely nailed it. So that’s been another fun thing that we’ve been working on on the side. So now let’s close Photoshop before it crashes my computer or something. Not that Photoshop would ever do that.