Description:

Capital Brewing Co. is a 100% independently employee-owned brewery and hospitality venue in Canberra, founded by a close group of mates who froth delicious brews, surfing waves and good vibes. They brew a range of craft beers that everyone can enjoy, not just beer aficionados with hop crumbs in their moustaches. Capital is passionate about producing great brews, building a community and demonstrating leadership in environmental sustainability. ‘Good Natured Brews’ is the ethos that informs all aspects of the brand. Being good natured means everything from treating employees and the planet with care and respect, to giving back to the local community that has supported them. ‘Good Natured’ is the lens through which we approached the website rebuild.

This project aimed to communicate the client ethos through an updated user interface, moving away from a standard template eCommerce site. This was achieved by seamlessly integrating Capital’s hand-drawn graphic illustrations, extending them from existing brand collateral into the digital environment. The custom cursor design lends a hand-drawn touch to interactive elements, with the addition of new illustrations aligned to the brand’s cheerful personality. Sitewide animations created from existing assets brought these brand elements to life. The multifaceted nature of the company website has been designed to channel all marketing activity into key areas of brand activation, concerned with generating brand awareness, promoting online sales, providing hospitality, and stimulating member engagement. Extensive marketing campaign work goes into launching new products and telling the story of each beer. Therefore, we ensured that the website captured and distilled the essence of existing campaigns from messaging to images and videography allowing for the narrative around each product to be heroed. This website design was an opportunity to align a very strong existing brand to an online user experience that not only felt familiar but exciting and presented all aspects of the company in a new context. The company doesn’t take things too seriously and neither does the website, which resulted in a playful interface that makes buying products or booking a table as simple as possible.

A full overhaul of the site structure and content was our first task, the existing information architecture was consolidated into more logical groupings. This allowed for new content to be incorporated whilst maintaining legibility for the existing users. Along with updated front end design, the backend provides a streamlined CMS and eCommerce administration experience for the client, prioritising content management and functionality. We built content management for the client using a. A customised Wordpress and WooCommmerce shopping cart solution integrates with the client’s payment gateways. Additionally, we increased accessibility by developing existing add to cart and checkout processes. We designed an eCommerce experience which favours common standards, best practice and feels familiar to online shoppers whilst providing all the flavour of the Capital brand.