Smog City Brewing is having their first anniversary, and they are celebrating with a logo-design contest, and by announcing a move to the South Bay.

Smog City, started by John and Laurie Porter, has been brewing beers for the last year out of the Tustin Brewing Co in Orange County, but the brewers have just revealed that they’ve found a suitable location for their permanent home in Torrance (the South Bay is becoming quite the craft beer hotspot).

Smog City now begins the bureaucratic odyssey of getting the brewery approved, permitted, and built over the coming months, and we hope the process goes smooth for them!

In addition to the exciting news of another new brewery starting operations in LA, Smog City has also announced a contest to design a logo for their 1st Anniversary brew (barrel aged Saber-Tooth Squirrel?)

Here is the design brief:

So now, here we are, one year later and looking for a piece of art for our 1^st anniversary. Once again we have the concept but not the art. So this is what we are doing. We’re putting out an all call for entries. Entries are to be sent to Laurie at laurie@SmogCitybrewing.com and a favorite will be selected on August 20^th 2012. Feel free to send jpgs, computer renderings or snap shots of the original artwork. Anything to show us what you’re working on.

This is one idea that we’d like to see explored but we’re open to all ideas.

The artwork:

A prehistoric sabre toothed squirrel skull with one lit candle on top of its head. The wax dripping down from the candle over the skull forms the city skyline like we have it in our logo. All entries must be one or two color max.

Sounds like a fun way to work on your design skills while helping out one of the city’s fledgling breweries! Smog City is offering a shirt and a $100 to the winning design; we wish our design chops were up-to the task!

Hit up the their post for more details on what they are looking for, some visual reference material, and an interesting history of the fantastic Smog City Brewing logo!