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william
schweigert

wbc
whisler’s
sorry
quari ice
delani
eccl

vimeo
instagram
practice

william schweigert
creative


williamschweigert.com
+1 404 316 2244 

I am an Artist and Creative Director currently living in Massachusetts. My background lives in the intersection of fine art, hospitality, and storytelling. I am a former college athlete with a BFA in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking from Georgia State University and an MFA in Art Theory and Practice from Northwestern University. Before working in brands and bars, I exhibited internationally, including shows like Documenta 14 and the 2017 Whitney Biennial. I previously worked in academia, teaching at the University of Texas in the Art Department: everything from theory and philosophy to painting, sculpture, and drawing.


For the past five years, I have been the Creative Director for a hospitality group, leading an award-winning creative team across two bars and an ice-company, while simultaneously working hands-on as bartender in a high-volume cocktail bar. Most recently, I led the design and concept development for a new cocktail bar opening in Austin, Texas and prepared two new brands for launch: World's Best Cocktails and Cocktail Buddies. For the latter, my role involved marketing development, recipe ideation, and storytelling to build a brand from the ground up.


At the core of everything I do is narrative, whether that’s through design, physical space, a drink, or a brand. Every part of my life has been a chance to tell a story, and that instinct drives how I approach creative direction.


education

BFA georgia state university 
MFA northwestern university




selected exhibitions

2021
Sublime Generous Odyssey, Pilotenkueche,     Leipzig, DE
Airy Democratic Spirituality, Alte Handelsschule, 
    Leipzig, DE
Thoughts Forms I, Gallery Gange,              Leipzig, DE (curator and                  participating artist)

2017
Debt Fair Online Archive, 
    Whitney Biennial, NYC/Online
    
2015
Age of Consent, Block Museum, 
    Evanston, IL
our debt, your debt, FLATspace, 
    Chicago, IL 

2013
Civil Sound Ecology, Elevate, 
    Atlanta, GA
636 // 08.03.13, Mint Gallery, 
    Atlanta, GA
False Truth, WonderRoot Arts Center,         Atlanta, GA

work experience

Beverage & Creative Director
One Trick Rabbit Hospitality
2021 - 2026

Creative Consultant & Founding Partner
Worlds Besst Cocktail’s Inc & 
Cocktail Buddies
2025 - 2026

Professor of Practice
University of Texas at Austin 
Department of Art and Art History
2015 - 2020












Worlds Best Cocktails & Cocktail Buddies


Role & Timeline

Creative Consultant & Founding Partner (2025–2026)

Summary

Built two beverage brands from concept to launch, spanning product development, branding, packaging, and go-to-market strategy.

Problem

Early-stage ideas with no brand system, identity, or launch framework.

Approach

Treated products as cultural systems: playful, premium, and participatory.

Work

Brand identity, packaging, website design + UX, campaigns, social content, video production, product photography, investor materials.

World’s Best Cocktails is a premium RTD (Ready to Drink) cocktail. At launch we produced
three flavors: House Margarita, Brown Banana, and Opera Cake.
Print and Digital ad for WBC inspired by vintage liquor ads from the 60’s.
Acid Buddy is a powdered, shelf stable, citrus repacement. To help explain Acid Buddy we “gamified” the website and our social media presence by creating a difficulty range and adjectives to help find the drinnk you love. 
Level 1 cocktails require little intervention, and can be made with tools a user has at home
Level 3 cocktails are equivalent to what you might find at a high level cocktail bar, using advanced tools like rotovaps for re-distillation







Whisler’s & Mezcalería Tobalá


Role & Timeline

Creative Director & Beverage Director (2021–2026)

Summary

Led a multi-year creative and strategic transformation of one of Austin’s busiest cocktail bars, evolving
it into a contemporary, culture-driven institution.

Problem

High volume and acclaim without narrative cohesion, visual identity, or digital presence in a rapidly
competitive market.

Approach

Built an agile brand framework centered on narrative cocktail menus, experiential programming, and a
dynamic social presence.

Work

Narrative menus, cocktail creation,  branding systems, website, social media, experiential events, global pop-ups.

Whisler’s is a high volume cocktail bar in Austin, Texas with a storied history, 
famous for establishing East Austin as a nightlife destination. 
Mezcaleria Tobala sits above Whisler’s nad is only open a few nights a week, when I began my creative work at Whisler’s i first started by creating some brand imagery for Tobala. 
First order of business, while working inside the established 4 menus a year framework, was to use those menus not just as a list of drinks but to tell stories with each menu, like this menu from 2022 in which each drink was inspired by a different revolution with spirits and flavor profiles specific to those regions. Each menu was printed in poster format with a historical poster on the back. There were 10 different menus in all, and guests were encouraged to steal the menus and keep for themselves. 
This Menu from 2024 in which we used the cover of patio construction to claim we had found a journal belonging to a botanist from centuries ago with each drink inspired by the plants and flavors we wrote about
We used social media to tell the story with cocktail photography and animated shorts depicting vignettes from our botanists travels.
In the summer of 24’ the theme was “Italian Summer”. I wrote a 14 line sonnet telling the story of a young woman finding herself on an endless summer vacation to Italy with each drink corresponding to a line in the sonnet.
The next order of business was using social media to create high energy reels depicting the bartenders as rockstars. 
We created new merch that helped tell the story of our brand, like these hoodies from our Winter 23’ collection advertised here being used in our ice house where we cut all of our big cubes. 
The following slides are a few more examples of creative ways I used media to create a cocktail bar that was more than just drinks but a creative space, like these pages from a zine we produced for our annual mezcal party in which we invite everyone to come and try our new barrel selections, or the following animation for our Fat Tuesday party, and lastly a surrealist video used to promote the drop of a recent menu. 
Design for our Summer 2026 frozen cocktail cans.







You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Gone (SORRY)


Role & Status 

Creative Director / Consultant — In Development (2024’ - Ongoing)

Summary

Originated a hospitality concept centered on memory, apology, and inherited glamour.

Concept

A French-inspired restaurant and punk cocktail bar (‘Sorry’) imagined as an eccentric grandmother’s archive.

Approach

Narrative-driven menus, handwritten archives, seasonal art-inspired cocktails.

Work

Brand identity, menus, cocktails, interior storytelling, service standards.

Handmade Beeswax To-Go Bags

You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Gone is a rustic French inspired restaraunt and cocktail bar
with a cajun twist located just outside Austin, Texas on historic Main Street 
in downtown Bastrop. I split the concept into two distinct identities. 
You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Gone is the name for the restaraunt inspired by the owners late 
Grandmother. The cocktail bar is informally referred to as Sorry’s, presenting
cutting edge cocktailswith a punk attitude.  
Initial brand identity, You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Gone presenting as traditional upscale restaraunt with a hand written menu in a flamnboyent copperplate font. Sorry’s bold in a contemporary san serif font often written with large chalk pastel. 
The food and cocktail menu presented in between two thin pieces of would held together 
by a strong metal clip with a pop of french blue. The menus are set up to appear DIY but elevated, allowing service to change the menus daily. 
Sorry’s Spring 2026 Denim Hat

The lily of the valley is the universal apology flower and serves as our logo but also alludes to 
the small flower shop behind the bar, where bartenders prepare nose gays while serving cocktails. 
A Stone built into the window frame out front of the restaraunt and a matching stone inside on the bar top read SORRY in our bold sans serif font, providing a place for visitors and guests to make 
rubbings and create their own post cards and apology letters to be paired with their bouquets or sent seperately. 







Quari Ice


Role & Timeline

Creative Consultant — 2 month engagement (2025)

Summary

Reframed a dominant clear ice company with a luxury, history driven brand vision.

Problem

Successful product with no cohesive narrative or premium visual language.

Approach

Grounded brand identity in Midwestern ice-harvesting history.

Work

Packaging concepts, logo, visual system, web and social direction.

The redesigned Quari Ice box treats the ice as sculpture showing appreciation
for the craftsmanship in the production. 
a simple designation of ice shape on the side of the box
sphere : : cube : : spear
Proposal for social media application of deiverables.







Delani Jewelry  


Role

Creative Consultant / Photographer
(2024)

Summary

Executed a tightly defined visual campaign within an existing aesthetic to test growth.

Problem

Strong product with inconsistent, low-quality content.

Approach

Deliberately mimicked a proven surf photography style.

Work

Single Instagram focused photo campaign.








ECCL


Role

Artist, Creative Director, Writer
(15’ - Ongoing)

Summary

An ongoing art and fashion project exploring branding, anonymity, and collective identity.

Concept

All black garments with hidden identifiers forming an anonymous collective.

Work

Fashion pieces, branding systems, campaigns, writing, exhibitions.

Impact

Defines the theoretical foundation of my creative direction practice.