Yout’s easy to recognize Hana Koa Brewing Co.’s beer cans in grocery stores—look for the labels with bold colors and playful designs, like a Chewbacca with a head of hops drinking a pint, a dinosaur smoking a pipe or a guava-powered cyborg.
Many of these designs are from the minds of marketing director Riley Johnson, who is Hana Koa’s in-house graphic designer, and tattoo artist Xavier Urbano, who has done more than 50 labels for Hana Koa in the past two years. They take turns creating designs for new beers every week—Hana Koa is nothing if not prolific—which includes labels for monthly collaborations with other businesses and nonprofit organizations, as well as internal graphics and merchandise. That’s a pretty high turnover, but “honestly I love it,” Johnson says. “The pace pushes your creativity.”
Josh Kopp is the head brewer and briefs team members on each beer. “Josh gets super creative with the styles of beer that he chooses to make,” Johnson says. “I can’t even imagine being up in his head.” She and Urbano decide whose style would fit each design better, then they split up the work. Kopp allows the two to be flexible and often works together on the description or name. The process usually takes about a month, though this summer they decided to change the concept of one beer at the last minute, to help pay the medical bills of a team member’s daughter who was in a moped accident. Despite the late change, they were able to redo the artwork for Rollin’ With the Homies that day—one of the perks of having a designer on staff.
Johnson has created 21 cans since she began her work at Hana Koa back in July 2021. “This might be biased because I am a graphic designer, but I know that I buy beer based on the label,” she says. “Initially when I first found out about Hana Koa, right away I was like, oh my God, I’ve never seen cans like these before. No other brewery in Hawai‘i is producing this style of work or beer.”
Here are some of Johnson and Urbano’s favorites:
Photo courtesy of Hana Koa Brewing Co.It feels like summer
If you look closely, you’ll see images of ‘Iolani Palace and Aloha Tower on the can. “The color scheme and the Corvette melting the pavement represent the heat that summer brings,” says designer Xavier Urbano.
Photo courtesy of Hana Koa Brewing Co.
The Longest Wave
“This is my favorite design I’ve done so far,” says marketing director Riley Johnson. “I really got to lean into my personal style and have fun with it. We were playing with ideas of the skeleton hanging 10 on the ‘longest wave’ for eternity.”
Photo courtesy of Hana Koa Brewing Co.
Cheehoo Chongers
Camille Chong is a Stage 4 breast cancer patient who was honored by this beer. “Brewing her own beer was on Camille’s bucket list,” Johnson says. Metavivor is a non-profit organization that conducts research on cancer.
Photo courtesy of Hana Koa Brewing Co.
Slo Chill Pils
“With this design I wanted to make it so that anyone who looked at the can long enough would have a glimpse of what it’s like to have that psychedelic feeling,” Urbano says. “The toad and the mushrooms guide you into your slow and chill journey.”
Photo courtesy of Hana Koa Brewing Co.
Shine Light
“I created this design with creative direction from Chrissie [Kopp, director of operations]. She wanted to represent a beacon of hope for the victims of sexual harassment and misconduct,” Urbano says. “The simplicity of the design represents my traditional tattoo background.”
Photo courtesy of Hana Koa Brewing Co.
Snoop pogg
“We came up with the name last year and were waiting for the perfect time,” Johnson says. “The design pulls on passionfruit-orange-guava illustrations with the infamous Snoop smoking an orange peel.”
