Where Tradition Meets Modern Web
Kirin has been brewing since 1888. Their digital presence needed to honor that heritage while feeling contemporary—a balance between Japanese minimalism and the bold flavors of their product line.
I worked on the front-end build within Optimizely's Episerver platform, focusing on creating an immersive experience that communicates craftsmanship without relying on walls of text. The constraint of working within an enterprise CMS actually pushed more creative problem-solving in how we structured templates and animations.
What I Built:
- Handlebars template architecture supporting complex page compositions
- SCSS system with careful attention to whitespace and typography hierarchy
- Bilingual content handling with proper character support for Japanese
- Micro-interactions throughout that reward exploration without overwhelming
The tricky part was maintaining the sense of Japanese precision within a platform built for American enterprise workflows. Every template decision had to work for both markets, both languages, both sensibilities.
