KAIJU! Beer have long been pioneers of the Australian brewing industry, having produced some of the hoppiest beers as well as one of the first and most popular tropical pale ales in the land, KAIJU! Krush. One of the ways the brewers keep their creative juices flowing is through their Mutation Program. According to Chief Boss Callum Reeves, “At one end of the scale we have our core range beers like Krush, Pleasure Kruze and Metamorphosis and at the other end we do some really wild tap only batches at KAIJU! Cantina, so when we want to trial something at a wider scale we have the Mutation Program. It’s an awesome way to try new styles, hops and frankly ridiculous names without the risk of printing tens of thousands cans with all the up front costs involved there.”

KAIJU! started the Mutation Program using long-time design collaborator, Mikey Burton. This then expanded to commissioning George Levi to create iconic illustrations for Dope Smoker, Space Lord and Immortal Jellyfish. “I absolutely love the artworks that Mikey and George have created as well as the beers we’ve made so far for the Mutation Program,” says Reeves, “And we got to a stage where we wanted to make the program more agile so we could trial more things and release new beers more frequently.” At KAIJU!, our visual identity is not just important, it’s crucial! And that’s why we chose TRiC to be our design partner. With an awe-inspiring track record of creating stunning design systems, we knew TRiC was the ideal choice to bring our vision to life.

According to Callum, “When I looked at TRiC’s portfolio, there were so many brands that I love engaging with like P. Johnson, MAAP and Hector’s Deli. They’re all brands that have an attractive visual identity and a strong and recognisable design language, which is exactly what I want in our products. You know who it’s from and you trust that it will be excellent quality.”

To demonstrate how the system works there will be two new Mutation Program beers launched at the same time – Dank Lord Vol. 1 West Coast IPA and The Situation Hazy Double IPA. “We’re using some fun, nostalgic elements that remind us of 90s computer games and Choose Your Own Adventure books while trying to keep the essence of KAIJU! with the logo and consistent line weights. The two new beers show some of the ways that the designs will change, particularly through capturing something of the beer in the colours, while the grid and information hierarchy will remain consistent. So even though the template is similar, you know that Dank Lord is going to be a piney, resinous hop monster and The Situation is going to have a softer mouthfeel with
more tropical, juicy hops.”

This month we’re launching our web store. This means that customers will be able to get beers that are ultra-fresh through KAIJU! Cantina or through the website. www.kaijubeer.com.au