Putting the normal circular model to shame, Special Group and Citizen Collective have introduced the newest product and model aimed at reducing food waste.
Have you ever been relaxing in the sun, enjoying a cool beer as the summer Cicadas screech softly in the background and thought to yourself, ‘you know what would make this beer better? less environmental impact.’
Then you are in luck.
Citizen’s co-founders include chef and restaurateur Ben Bayly, owner of Sawmill Brewery Mike Sutherland, and food innovator Donald Shepherd have recently introduced their newest brew, and in doing so took the regular circular model to the next level.
Now using the awesome power of bread, every can of Citizen craft beer uses the fermentable starches from bread that would otherwise go to waste or become low-value stock feed. A quarter of the malted barley in every brew is replaced with this rescued bread, which in turn saves resources.
“Brewing with bread was a challenge. It’s taken us a few months to create Citizen’s distinct and unique flavour,” says Mike Sutherland, Citizen Co-Founder and owner of Sawmill Brewery. “It’s not every day you get to create a tasty craft beer and fight food waste in the process.”
The team then works with artisan bakers Wild Wheat to create malty sourdough loaves using flour made from the spent-grain by-product of their beer brews.
So bread turns into beer, which goes back into bread. The infinity model.
Run by the team at Special Group, the agency are no strangers when it comes to communicating the cool aspect for brands. And with old bread not exactly sparking imagination in consumers, there was plenty of opportunities for this product to be avoided.
“We decided a sense of pared-back simplicity would catch the eye, and went from there,” says Heath Lowe, Executive Design Director. “Taking a lead from Citizen’s disruptive approach to food waste, we disrupted traditional branding and identity thinking. The brand has no single logo, no single colour palette, no single marque or font. Instead, a series of unique assets are brought together to tell the story.”
“We love that the design identity is a collection of different expressions and ideas – much like we are,” says Citizen Co-Founder Donald Shepherd. “And with our ambition to create multiple rescued-food products in future, it’s a design system that’s versatile enough to evolve with us.”
