Meet the Artist Who Designed our 2026 Angler Pro Paddle

7-minute read

Taylor Berman is the artist who designed the new Bruiser pattern for our award-winning Angler Pro kayak fishing paddle for 2026.

Artist Taylor Berman with the new Angler Pro he designed

Taylor draws much of the inspiration for his artwork from his outdoor life in the St Croix River Valley area where he lives, not far from our headquarters in Osceola, Wisconsin. So it seemed natural for us to partner with him for our newest Angler Pro color.

We recently sat down with Taylor for an interview about his artwork for Bruiser, his fishing and his work. Here’s our interview with him:

BENDING BRANCHES: How did you get connected with Branches?

TAYLOR: We had actually talked about a year prior to working on this Angler Pro model. You all were working on a different project and had reached out to me as a local artist. This one went a different direction than my design aesthetic, but your team had said that when it was time to redo the Angler Pro, I’d be a really good fit for that. And honestly, it sounded more up my alley anyway. So I followed up around the time frame you folks had talked about to revisit this project.

Kate [Wright, Branches’ Director of Marketing] and I knew each other from growing up in the area and had some friend connections through school.

Even when she first reached out, though, I knew about Bending Branches but didn’t realize how close the headquarters is—just 30 minutes from where I live. I’ve been to the factory a couple of times now and saw the actual process of pressing the silk-printed design through the molds. It’s impressive that it’s all done by hand.

Taylor fly fishing in his native Wisconsin

BRANCHES: What inspired this Bruiser pattern?

TAYLOR: When we initially talked about this, there was discussion around what fish people generally target and think about in our local area, the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes region. This is total native smallmouth bass habitat. We've got some really rich fisheries around here. 

That was one of the initial reasons—the smallmouth is such a symbolic fish for this area. And the type of water that you're generally fishing for them is conducive for accessing by kayak.

I dress in very unexciting tones and like to blend in with my surroundings when I'm fishing or outdoors. I wondered if there was value in having a stealthiness or camo kind of component. Actually playing off of some of these fish's natural patterns to blend in. 

And smallmouth being a pretty big predator themselves, that's a huge part of their whole ambush mode. We wanted to offer something that's a little more natural or earth tone. This was a cool study of the actual bronze back colors, and then applying it to this design was a lot of fun.

BRANCHES: Tell us about your design process for Bruiser.

TAYLOR: Through discussion, we narrowed down some species we thought would be a good fit and settled on smallmouth bass. Once I started developing designs, I presented some black and white compositional sketches to make sure we were headed in the right direction for how things would lay out on the paddle shape. 

We also went into it wanting to design a full rectangle, so it wasn't just the paddle shape. I thought one of the nicest bits of feedback I got from Kate was, “This is the first time we've had no revisions requested on a design.” 

Taylor’s smallmouth design…

…and the Bruiser design on the paddle blade

Then the next step was plugging in color. I was encouraged to stay true to my patterned style of drawing, which is influenced by block printing, with a lot of linear marks.

I drew it digitally in Procreate. Once the design was ready, I was able to export it in the format they needed and could print from there.

The shape of a paddle blade is definitely a unique canvas. Trying to create something that fell within those boundaries, but not in an awkward way. It's not a flat canvas—it’s got a peaked ridge to it. It was almost a little bit sculptural in a way, even though I was drawing in a flat mode. 

Fish have lateral lines that run down their sides. And that's part of the orientation of the design. I was trying to use their lateral line and design, their patterns, and build on that.

Another sample of Taylor’s beautiful artwork

BRANCHES: What’s your fishing background, and how does fishing connect with your art?

TAYLOR: My dad started me really young with fishing and outdoors stuff. One of the most memorable trout fishing experiences I’ve had was as a 7-year-old with my dad. We went up to Yellowstone. I actually still have the fly from that trip. We bought these huge stone flies, and all we had were spinning gear, but they showed us how to rig up a bubble bobber and a fly underneath. My dad was a big influence, and now I'm actually teaching him how to fly fish every time he comes out to visit.

I would say that I fish because it's meditative for me, as a human being. I go out fishing because it’s like free river therapy. I'm slowing down big time, and I'm paying attention to things that I wouldn't normally be tuned into.

Taylor fishes with his young son

Fishing, as it relates to art making, is a way of connecting with what I’d consider the ultimate source of inspiration—the natural world. There are a lot of cool opportunities to observe, reflect and slow down when I'm fishing that, in turn, become a source of inspiration.

It's kind of a cyclical thing. Fishing exposes me to observations and learning, and things that inspire me to create and put that into something visual. Then there's a creative element of fishing that's separate from traditional art making. For me, fly tying is this whole other sculpture compartment of art making. I like functional art as well. Fly tying has become one of the things I'm interested in right now as a functional art.

BRANCHES: Tell us about your art background.

TAYLOR: I went to school for art education and then was a high school art teacher for a number of years. My mom was a really big influence in my life with art, as my dad was for my life outdoors. I got into printmaking in high school and then got more exposure to it in college. I ended up going an extra semester to get a BFA in printmaking. So my emphasis was printmaking and my minor was painting. 

I left the education side of things a few years back. I was doing mural painting full-time in the summers in between school years, then eventually started an LLC for my mural painting business. I do some other design and digital work as well, but my primary mode is now outdoor murals. It's been a few years now of doing that.

One of many examples of Taylor’s stunning mural paintings

Teaching is huge for me as well, though. I still do some workshops in printmaking and mural painting so that I can stay involved in education.

Taylor with his wife and their two children

You can see more of Taylor’s art on his website: TaylorBermanArt.com. You can also follow him on Instagram.

All photos courtesy of Taylor Berman.

Check out the Angler Pro kayak fishing paddle in Bruiser here.

What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us at 715-755-3405 or bbinfo@bendingbranches.com, or choose our online chat option.

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