How Tools of the Trade were Born
5 years ago I was working at Justice Snow's in Aspen, Colorado. It still remains one of the most beautiful cocktail bars I've ever been. Located in the historic Wheeler Opera house on the Corner of Mill st and Hyman st. Jerome B. Wheeler built this incredible building over 120 years ago and for a solid 6 years a crew of inspired bar tenders poured their heart, soul and time into keeping it alive. The bar definitely gave back to us, gave back to us in the form of money, friends, love, and incredible interactions and connections with our guests, locals, and celebrities.
The bar manager, J.P. Smith was and still is a "cocktail savant" of unmatched creativity and talent. He took incredible care in making the bar beautiful, easy to use even with a seemingly infinite number of ingredients. On top of keeping the bar beautiful he made sure to keep his bar team happy by making sure we were having FUN behind the bar because how much fun we have reflects on to the guests and the guests are there to have fun!
After several years and countless hours spent in that restaurant, I could not get over the inherent beauty of the tools that we use constantly every day. Every tool was simple in its design and multi functional and incredibly well constructed. Jiggers, shakers, bar spoons, knifes, rocks glasses, coupes, tiki glasses, muddlers, high walled coupes, absinthe fountains and so much more. These images kept rushing through my mind and I never saw anybody making fun art involving these tools. I kept saying to myself "how cool would it be to outline these tools and put them in a collage pattern on a shirt and then slap our restaurants logo on it." Well I was working so much and rock climbing in my free time and never got around to making these shirts. 5 YEARS go by and I can't stand it anymore! I took an Adobe illustrator class and got to work. I spent several months re acquainting myself with the program and designing several hours a day before I went to work. As the shapes came to life, my creative mind kept growing and so did the combination of images. The tools became beautiful and I was confident I found the correct medium to display this art.
Tools of the trade art is meant to celebrate the beauty of the tools we use, the sexy curves of the glassware and the inspiring and fun art we get to express through BOOSE.
Thank you for your time,
Cheers,
Sammy G
@Samtheleo
@toolsofthetradebrands
Toolsofthetradebrands.com