OUGD503 - YCN - Research: Coffee Branding

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1/Individual Practice 

Research: Coffee Branding

Concluding the current branding for Grand Cafe was inadequate as part of the response to the brief I chose to re-brand the range in a more suitable aesthetic, this would include a new brand identity and packaging design that would be more engaging to consumers and establish the brand at the top of its competition. In order to ensure the resolution is informed and is successful one needs to analyse a range of existing coffee branding to gain inspiration as to how the design of Grand Cafe can stand out and appeal to its audience. 


COFFEEHOOD: 

Coffee hood is a specialty coffee bar based in Southern Brazil, the brand identity is designed by Salih Kucukaga of Instabul who works as a one man, small batch, intimate freelance designer, specialising in identity design and packaging. 

The logo design is contemporary with the use of a bold sans-serif type wit hhumnatist detailing to create a relaxed brand identity, the combination mark works well with the logotype and icon complementing each other with similar weights. The icon uses a calligraphy style using text as image to create a CH to represent coffee hood, this calligraphic style creates further synergy with the humanist details of the typeface to create a strong brand identity that will appeal the target audience connoting a contemporary and well established coffee brand.

The logo is successfully applied to the packaging design and other collateral, the brown paper packaging adds a contemporary aesthetic that connotes the environment and has become popular with small independent stores often generalised as being quite 'hipster'. The flashes of teal within the menu design and featured on  the cups brings the collateral to life making it more eye-catching and engaging to its audience whilst ensuring a fairly minimal colour-palette that can be translated successfully across the breath of its collateral. This ensures a strong brand identity that can be easily identified as Coffeehood brewery. 

BLANCHARD'S: 

To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of  Blanchard’s Coffee Roasting Co. there was a complete rebranding to consolidate its quality-focused roasted coffee. The rebranding included a new logo,  website and covers all of Blanchard’s coffee packaging. The company began working with Tim Skirven and Ali Croft of Richmond’s Skirven & Croft on the design more than a year before its release. 

The re-brnad is successful in re-targeting the coffee at a more urban audience in an ever-growing market. Celebrating the 10th anniversary adds a sense of heritage that can be identified within this new logo design. The stamped aesthetic gives the brand an independent aesthetic that connotes quality, this is further reinforced through the classy colour scheme of gold and black. The chunky sans-serif type establishes itself well within the logo, two variations are presented to be interchangeable across the range of collateral. 

The packaging is where this re-invisioned identity comes to life, the range of blends lends itself well to the new brand vision, with different colours to creatively identify the different products. The stamp treatment laid out to communicate the information adds striking reference to the logos aesthetic succinctly bring the whole identity together to create unified visual that will appeal to its audience. Similarly to the Coffeehood branding the use of brown paper adds a sense of environmental benefit to the design as well as complementing the design and varying colour palettes within the varying packaging designs. 

SALVATIERRA: 

Salvatierra specialises in the production and exportation of Latin American organic premium goods such as coffees and cookings oils to South Korea. The packaging for these ranges, developed by Anagrama, who  explain their concept here; “Our design proposal uses flag icons to exalt the product’s origins and gold foil to express it’s premium quality. The logo depicts a pair of hands holding an abstract item, a mixture of snowflake and plant that makes allusion to nature, while the letter S helps tie the overall look of the logo with the brand’s name."

The logo design for Salvatierra is an unusual mix of utility, provence and quality delivered through the typographic economy of a single condensed uppercase sans-serif, the use of plenty of unprinted space, flags, a contemporary mono-line weight logo, the flourish of neon coloured papers and the perceived luxury of a small gold foil detail. 

The white background is too minimal and contrasting with the dark colour of the beans printed on the packaging however the flags  are a nice detail that reference the products origins. This is complemented by the singular typeface which is assertive enough to communicate the brand to its audience. The icon of the hands provides good connotations of nature however the ambiguous shape within the hands may confuse the audience as the 's' in the centre could be depicted as a dollar sign which would confuse the connotations of the brand identity entirely.