When Hopewell artist Matthew Langille switched his major from glassblowing to printmaking at Alfred University, he half-joked that it was because he wanted to be around more girls. Back then, he imagined he might one day design a can for Pabst Blue Ribbon. Years later, his playful art now appears on a limited-edition can for Poppi—the prebiotic soda brand that PepsiCo acquired in May 2025 as part of its expansion into functional, lower-sugar beverages.
Langille’s career spans more than two decades, with his illustrations gracing products from Swatch watches to Adidas apparel. His instantly recognizable “everything pattern” style—a mix of cheeky, youthful icons and characters—has appeared on thousands of products worldwide. With Poppi’s new flavor Punch Pop, his work is reaching soda drinkers across the country. Punch Pop features Langille’s signature artwork, and the prebiotic soda fits into PepsiCo’s push to offer “gut healthy” options with less sugar than traditional soft drinks. Punch Pop can be found at retailers where Poppi is sold.
“It’s usually a multitude of images and icons and basically the idea is an everything pattern…It all has that young, childish, whimsy, cheeky kind of fun to it,” Langille said.
Coming from a family of artists and lawyers, Langille always knew which path he would take. At 11 years old, he attended Buck’s Rock Camp, where he explored ceramics and glassblowing before discovering printmaking. During his time at Alfred University, he shifted to printmaking, where he met his future wife, who was studying graphic design.
Langille always wanted to design a beverage can, and he saw Poppi’s colorful aesthetic as a natural match for his style—uncommon in much of the beverage industry, he noted. For the can, he brought elements of the brand together in a way that felt true to his own spirit. “After 23 years of doing this, the art part of it just kind of comes out of me,” he said.
He works almost exclusively in pen and marker to keep ideas fresh and unforced, drawing rapidly and discarding what doesn’t fit before scanning keepers for potential use. “I feel like when you erase you kind of allow yourself to just start to make it look the way you think it’s supposed to look, whereas when you just let it happen organically and don’t mess with it that’s kind of where my signature style resides,” he said.
Even during phone calls with brands, he doodles the potential collaboration whether or not the project moves forward. “I think if you’re an artist, you’re inherently a maker, so you’re always making stuff,” he said.
Though much of his work is upbeat, Langille doesn’t shy away from real emotions. He notes that some characters reflect his own experiences with anxiety, and that honesty helps people see themselves in his designs. “I’d rather be doing happy and fun than sad and depressing because there’s enough of that, you just have to turn on the news,” he said. “I’m realistic and so not all my characters are all happy, but they can, even if they’re not smiling, elicit a smile from people because they’re relatable.”
Langille is clear about what he’ll draw and what he won’t. “I can really draw anything on the spot aside from unicorns and princesses. Well, princesses I can handle, but fairies drive me crazy,” he said.
He also thinks art schools could do more to prepare graduates for the business side of creative work. “I think that art school needs to do a better job of preparing artists for being entrepreneurs and for making a living,” he said.
Early in his career, galleries turned him away. Email, still relatively new at the time, helped him find traction with magazines. “[Initially], I was like, I’m going to contact every magazine in New York. And then I was like, I’m going to contact every magazine. And so, I became really big in Australia,” he said. His first paid assignment was a political illustration for Playgirl Magazine. “I remember my aunt going into stores in New York City asking for Playgirl Magazine and being so embarrassed,” he recalled.
Fashion collaborations followed with brands including Marc Jacobs, Speedo, and J. Crew. One of his proudest moments came with a 2009 Swatch partnership that put his work on billboards and storefronts from Times Square to Venice. “I was just walking around Europe giving out autographs and going to Paris and going down the Champs-Élysées. They have a store and there was a whole wall dedicated to me,” he said.
At 43, Langille says he’s comfortable turning down projects that don’t align with his values or give him the creative freedom he needs. As fashion and consumer packaged goods continue to overlap, the Poppi collaboration offers a gateway to new audiences and industries. “The sky’s the limit. Anything that I can put my designs on, I’m all about,” he said.
Langille’s advice for aspiring creatives remains direct. “To creatives, just hold your head up high. You have to put in the hours, and you have to make that huge deck of all the collaborations you’ve done. You have to do all that work to get people to take you seriously…The idea is that hopefully it will pay off in the long run, but just to keep your head down and just be creative.”
