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Transforming a beer fest with AR magic
Brief
Overview
BrewAR is a suite of beer-centric augmented reality experiences created for the LA Independent Beer Festival 2025 to transform the festival with interactive AR play.
I lead the concept, user experience, and level design of BrewAR with a team of reality designers at Reality Experience Design (RED). In partnership with Snap Inc., we created several AR experiences including an immersive 360° educational brewing mini-game available on Snapchat for mobile & Snap Spectacles that engaged festival-goers and attending breweries.
My Role
Experience Designer
Reality Designer
Level Designer
Tools
Lens Studio
Blender
Figma
Scope
2 Months
BrewAR at LA Independent Beer Fest
Impact
1
1 Day, 100K+ views,
100+ shares.
2
Introduced Snap Spectacles to new audiences.
3
Connected with 3+ brands interested in AR's potential.
Bridging AR with Craft Beer Culture
While augmented reality is transforming industries like gaming and entertainment, its immersive and interactive story-telling potential remains untapped for many brands. For the LA Independent Beer Fest, I saw an opportunity: what if breweries could tell their story through AR? Our challenge was twofold: design experiences that made beer education engaging, while demonstrating value for beer brands in a low-tech environment.
Interactive AR Brewing Game
We created a game built on Lens Studio with Snapchat's lens AR filters that engages festival-goers with an interactive scavenger hunt for ingredients related to brewing beer. Participants can learn about the brewing process and once they complete the experience, they can take a selfie with their finished drink creating a shareable moment.
Innovation First Approach
Our partnership with Snap Inc. identified a key opportunity: BrewAR would serve as a showcase for Snap’s AR Spectacles, demonstrating their unique value in experiential settings. By designing for hand-tracking and immersive spatial interactions, we showed how next-gen wearables can deepen engagement.
Environment Design & Accessible Spatial UI
Our team crafted an immersive 360° environment to allow festival-goers to explore the virtual environment and interact with life-sized ingredients. To avoid crowd collisions, we centered key interactions within a dynamic 180° field and added drag-to-move functionality as an alternative to walking.
180° interaction zone
drag-to-move accessibility function
Creating Shareable Moments
Our wearable AR cup experience let users ‘capture the buzz’—shaking their head activated a dynamic wearable beer cup animation and event logo that framed their selfies, allowing them to share a fun moment with others at the festival.
AR-Activated Beer Products
At the Beer Fest, we transformed beer products into interactive gateways for augmented reality. Our AR-activated coasters and beer cans unlocked immersive content when scanned with a smartphone. These tangible touchpoints extended engagement beyond the event, turning festival souvenirs into lasting connections between brands and beer lovers.
3D Workflow with Lens Studio & Blender
Developed in Lens Studio and adapted for mobile, tablet, and Spectacles, we achieved a seamless integration adapted for various devices. I created 3D assets used for the experience and built out the mini-game level design within Blender before exporting the assets to Lens Studio where the user interactions and animations were created. These tools provided the necessary workflow to collaborate on the experiences and bring our vision to life.
Concept Development
Early concepts featured a DIY beer builder where users customized flavors via AR menus—but testing revealed users craved more environmental interaction. Inspired by Don Julio’s XR tequila campaign, I pivoted to an immersive scavenger hunt and brewing experience, blending education with physical exploration.
User Testing with First-time AR Users
User testing revealed 80% of AR first-timers struggled with experience activation and onboarding. To remove barriers, I implemented:
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Pre-loaded experience stations (Tablets + Spectacles)
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Multiple QR activations at key engagement zones
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Visual guides like tutorial stands at the booth
Navigating Snap's Content Policies
Snapchat’s content policies required us to rethink traditional beer festival visuals—not as a limitation, but as an opportunity to create more accessible, family-friendly interactions. By playfully abstracting ingredients (like renaming beer as "fizzy orange soda"), we crafted an experience that engages a wider audience range.
Key Outcomes
1
70% of users completed all experiences at our booth
2
25% QR re-scan rate post-event proving lasting engagement
3
Featured by LA Independent Beer Festival organizers
Reflection
This project was my playground for learning the technical skillsets from spatial UI to 3D design with the goal of bringing an XR experience from concept to launch at a live event. It was also a discovery of how XR can deepen real-world joy. Watching strangers dance in front of the experiences showed how we as designers are able to craft these shared moments of wonder.
Next Steps
Building on this success, we’re adapting BrewAR’s framework for future festivals and conventions—adapting our interactive experiences for other venues. As RED’s first booth presence, we’ve now established a scalable playbook for approaching other industries.
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