Words and photos by Ashley Joanna
Edited by Breandán Kearney
Humans of Belgian Beer is a series of photographic portraits which celebrate a people and their culture.
Amaury “Ammo” Dastarac is a French illustrator who came to Brussels in 2009 in need of a change from his life as a “starving artist” in Bordeaux. Originally producing gig posters for Rock bands, Ammo now illustrates beer labels for breweries such as No Science, De Ranke, and Cantillon. His art appears on the bottles and cans of some of Belgium’s most iconic brands. His most recent project—with new Brussels brewery Brasserie De La Mule—is setting the beer scene alight.
As a 7 year old, Ammo would sit quietly in his room in the rural family home in Villeneuve-sur-lot, France, with his pen glued to his hand. He would flip through the white blank pages in a new drawing book, thinking of the comics he would create next. Countryside life was quiet and Ammo filled most of his time letting his imagination run wild. Ammo’s older brother, Joe, saw his passion for drawing and has become one of the biggest supporters of Ammo’s creativity. Joe told Ammo to believe in himself; to keep pushing and practicing; and that one day his art would turn into something truly special. Ammo kept believing in himself, and he kept pushing and practicing.
Ammo’s passion for drawing grew stronger as time went on. He attended Art School as a teenager and began to focus mainly on illustrating music gig posters, flyers, and graphic designs on clothing bands for musicians in Bordeaux. He secured work from the American Record Label, Sargent House, plunging him deeper into the music world. His style of line drawing and his obvious love for hardcore rock and heavy metal helped make his work a hot commodity in the music industry. After 10 years of similar work in the same place, Ammo began to feel stagnant in his art and his move to another country was a search for new inspiration.
After moving to Belgium in 2009, Ammo would sit in a tiny apartment in Brussels with his wife and a drawing book full of ideas. He was an Art teacher in a local school and he was growing his portfolio of music clients. Ammo began meeting people who straddled both the music and beer world, and introductions preceded commissions from Maxime Dumay of No Science, Nino Bacelle of De Ranke, and Jean Van Roy of Cantillon.
“Drawing has always been a form of meditation for me,” says Ammo. “Feeling the energy and contact of the pen touching the paper is my ultimate happiness. I can’t live without drawing. If I don’t create, my brain would explode.”
Ammo’s favourite projects are ones that challenge him; ones outside his comfort zone. When Joël Galy, a fellow heavy metal lover and former brewer at the Brasserie De La Senne opened the first brewery in Schaerbeek in 60 years (Brasserie De La Mule), he contacted Ammo for something different. Together, Ammo and Galy created illustrations for De La Mule’s can artwork with an American Goldrush vibe, dense pencil lines and decorated midwestern typography with a sense of an exciting new frontier. It’s the way Ammo always works. He wants to become close to the owners and their company so he can better understand their needs and design a graphic that tells their story.
“Art is like cooking,” says Ammo. “For example, everyone knows how to make Spaghetti Bolognese, but they all have their own unique recipe for it. This is the inspiration I have behind my illustrations. This is why art makes the world go round.”
I can’t live without drawing. If I don’t create, my brain would explode.
Amaury “Ammo” Dastarac
