In Conversation With Alan Berry Rhys

For our latest collaboration with Alba, we had the privilege of working with Alan Berry Rhys, an Argentinian artist known for his bold, nostalgic, and handcrafted aesthetic. Alan’s work seamlessly blends tradition with modernity, making him the perfect choice to bring this project to life. His artwork for this collaboration tells the story of tequila, paying tribute to the Agave plant and the centuries-old process of making it. We sat down with Alan to dive deeper into his creative process, inspirations, and what this collaboration means to him.

Tell us a bit about your background. How did you get into art and design?
I’ve always had some approach to art, since I was a little boy. I started art workshops when I was 4 years old. Then I chose to study graphic design and eventually switched to illustration and graphic art in the middle of my career.

Your work has a very distinct style. How would you describe it?

Hahaha, thanks, it’s really nice to hear that. I worked a lot to have a personal style. Once a teacher told me, your personal style is everything you do well, but also what you do wrong. I think that’s something that really represents me. I would love to be a very technical illustrator, but I’m not, so I search ways to resolve images with the tools that I have. With my limitations, and those limitations are part of my style I believe.

Also, I think my art is very influenced by my graphic design formation, and love for typography. I always loved street graphics. Specially those created by people who didn’t study graphic design. I find soul on those popular, academically wrong graphics. In addition I love low quality printing methods, and their limitations inspire me. Registration errors, colour limitations, basic colour inks, etc.

In terms of my personal work, I always made a big effort to have something to say, something to show to the world. When I started illustrating in the university, all my friends were following the trend, illustration, skulls, diamonds, monsters. So I decided that I wanted to find out something no one was working with. So I decided to illustrate the fishing trips I make with friends to a very special river in Argentina. It’s a subtropical river, with a very distinct culture and landscape.

For this collaboration, you created artwork that represents the tequila-making process. What inspired your approach?

What I like of alcohol beverages is that although they have great quality, the process in the end, is pretty simple. You can understand pretty quick how a tequila is made. And the best quality can still be produced by hand. I wanted to show that feeling. That real people are behind the production. Real plants. Real materials. When tasting tequila, you can feel the materials involved. Soil, smoke, ceramics, wood.

There are some key symbols in your artwork. Can you tell us more about them?

I guess typography is one of them. And that comes from my Graphic design background. But specially hand made ones. I love as I said before, those people making billboards by hand, with no academic background. I find very deep beauty and social justice in it. And with social justice I mean, the possibilities that brings. We always think that for producing something you need to study, take courses, have very expensive computers, or machines to produce in an industrial way. And in the end all you need is desire. Then you just work with what you can put your hands on. And the accumulated hours of work, and effort will make it come to life, and will bring quality.

What drew you to working with I Love Ugly and Alba on this project?

I was attracted by both brands. I like, Love and Ugly´s style and I love tequila so it was not too hard to convince me. Hahaha.

I Love Ugly is a brand that continuously celebrates artists and their work. What advice would you give to young artists looking to develop their own style?

Work, work, work. People usually think artist are some kind of illuminated human beings with talent that ideas and images just appear in front of our eyes by a magical act. But the only way I find for that magic to happen, is working. Spending hours in front of your art, and dealing with all the emotions this brings.

How do you like to drink Tequila?

I love to drink tequila in a Paloma cocktail. I love the combination of the citrus, and freshness of a fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, with the earthiness of tequila. Sometimes I like to add some chilli syrup. And for the salt, I like to mix it with Tajin.