NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – New Mexico native Andrew Martinez is feeling good. His design has shown up on 140 million cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon across the country. A beer he knows well. “I have been known to drink some PBRs,” he laughed.

“The most exciting thing was actually going to a bar or a store and seeing my cans for the first time, like, seeing my can in person was probably the most exciting part of it all, to be honest.”

Martinez, who now calls Seattle home, was one of 10 people who won a national competition. While he submitted seven designs to PBR, one floated.

“People are finding my can and tagging me on social media. I really get a kick out of that. That’s been like the super fun part of the process.”

After 15 weeks of completing CNM’s Ingenuity Deep Dive UX/UI Bootcamp program last year, he began brewing up some ideas and stumbled upon the PBR competition.

“I figured, oh, you know, if nothing comes out of this other than a good portfolio piece, then that’s fine with me.”

Last November while quarantining with COVID, he decided to use his time at home drawing, creating the piece that’s now been seen by millions of beer drinkers.’

“I made seven of them, and I would say, yeah, probably 10 to 20 hours each spent on them.”

Martinez said to stay tuned as 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for him and his designs. For the time being, he wants you to enjoy the outside of the can just as much as what’s on the inside.

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The design on the cans started showing up in stores around October.