Overview

Beer That Shouldn’t Exist is a campaign concept created for Thrive, a Belgian brand producing functional alcohol-free beers with added protein, vitamins and magnesium.

Instead of focusing on what the beer removes, I built the campaign around what Thrive adds.

The central idea became:

If beer is supposed to be unhealthy, then a beer that makes you better shouldn’t exist.

The concept

Thrive already challenges traditional beer culture through its products.

I pushed that idea further by positioning the brand as a rule breaker in the world of beer.

The campaign uses irony and rebellion to turn functionality into something desirable rather than cautious:

Beer That Shouldn’t Exist.

The tone moves away from traditional wellness communication and instead feels bold, self-aware and slightly provocative.

Visual direction

My first direction leaned heavily into crime scenes, evidence and investigation.

It supported the idea of something “illegal”, but felt too dark and serious for Thrive.

I moved toward a more graphic visual system inspired by:

• protest posters
• warning tape
• oversized typography
• editorial layouts
• bold geometric shapes

This gave the campaign a stronger balance between rebellion and humor.

Campaign experience

The campaign was designed as a connected journey across several touchpoints.

Social posts and posters introduce different beer rules, while Thrive products are presented as the ones breaking them.

From there, users are directed to an interactive website where they can explore the beers, complete challenges and earn a Clearance Badge.

The badge then becomes part of the physical experience, giving access to The Illegal Tasting Room — a pop-up event that extends the campaign beyond the screen.

The full journey becomes:

Social + posters → interactive website → badge → tasting event → user-generated content

Interaction design

Rather than creating a conventional product website, I wanted the digital experience to make users participate in the campaign idea.

The website treats the visitor as someone entering the “illegal side of healthy beer”, using interactions and challenges to reveal Thrive’s products and their benefits.

The interaction supports the same campaign message rather than existing as a separate digital layer.

Outcome

The final concept transformed Thrive’s functional benefits into a campaign built around one simple tension:

beer isn’t supposed to be good for you — Thrive is.

The project helped me combine brand strategy, visual identity and interaction design into one connected campaign rather than treating each touchpoint separately.

It also taught me to simplify an idea until every part of the experience supports the same story.