Beer Project Brussels

Brand Profile

Brussels Beer Project was founded in 2013 by Sébastien Morvan and Olivier De Brauwere, two former university peers who identified a structural gap in a city whose beer heritage had calcified into tradition. The brewery entered the market with a fundamentally different operating model: rather than deciding in closed rooms which beers to produce, BBP crowd-sourced its product roadmap, inviting the public to taste, vote, and choose which brews would reach distribution. This structural choice, production as community event, was both a business proposition and a brand architecture, requiring a visual identity capable of carrying equal parts irreverence and institutional credibility across an expanding portfolio of products.

Design Strategy & Execution

I was commissioned by Coast to develop brand guidelines and a packaging architecture for Brussels Beer Project. The challenge was not the production of a single, considered piece of brand communication, but to develop a graphic system capable of generating coherent new packaging at the speed the brewery's model demanded. New beers emerged continuously, each requiring a distinct material presence on a retail shelf. The identity system was engineered for this operational reality: modular, recognizable, and flexible enough to accommodate an ever-expanding range without diluting shelf coherence. The design harmonized consistency with creative energy, ensuring that each new expression remained unmistakably BBP while possessing a distinct, recognizable character appropriate to the brand.

Proof of Success

Founded 2013; launched via crowdfunding campaign that raised €50,000 from 369 contributors, establishing community ownership as a founding principle.
Operates three taprooms in Brussels (Dansaert, Port Sud, Bailli), with expansion bars in Paris, a location in Tokyo and exports to 20+ countries confirming international reach.
Port Sud brewery on the Brussels canal opened 2022, consolidating all brewing operations in-house for the first time.
Featured in Flanders Today, Belgian Smaak, Beerwulf, and international craft beer media; documented catalog of 200+ beers on Untappd.