The challenge for Brewer's Coffee was to create a brand identity, which includes a logo, packaging for their coffee beans, and a coffee cup for testers and their retail shops. The client wanted their logo to be recognizable yet modern.
Role: Art Direction, Graphic Design, Web Design, UX Design, Brand Design
Brewer’s Coffee is a startup coffee brand specializing in giving customers the highest quality of coffee from ethically sourced coffee beans. Brewer’s Coffee offers a wide range of quality roasts from different countries so that their customers can get the exact blend that they need.
I was tasked to create a brand identity for Brewer’s Coffee, which includes a logo, packaging for their coffee beans, and a coffee cup for testers and their retail shops. The client wanted their logo to be recognizable to the average consumer while keeping it modern. For their packaging, the client asked to have a modern and minimal look. For the coffee cups, since it was more of a promotional material, they wanted the cup to be vibrant yet in line with their brand.
I started the process by looking at the major coffee competitors like Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, and smaller more niche coffee maker like Blue Bottle Coffee, and Joe Coffee Company. Having ethically sourced coffee beans was an important part of Brewer’s mission statement, so I wanted to make sure that their brand stands out amongst others and have it not only look good but also let future customers know that this brand is different from the other big name competitors. For the logo, I wanted to make sure it was not only readable but relatable and easily identifiable by consumers. I looked at different images and icons that represent coffee and brewing coffee like a coffee cup, coffee beans, coffee machines and others. I also wanted to develop a colour palette that represents different hues of coffee to tie everything up.
While looking at different packaging, I noticed that most brands use a similar look, being either a can or pouch, with coffee beans on it to illustrate the fact that it’s coffee. I wanted to go for something more minimal as it will set it apart on shelves from other competitors, and having a clean packaging also ties into Brewer’s Coffee clean business practices. For the coffee cups, I found that most coffee companies just use a standard white, black or brown cup as they are disposable and they will be able to buy them in bulk. With this I found that there could be a way we can utilize this a another way to push and differentiate Brewer’s Coffee from others.
For the logo, I wanted to make it different yet still be recognizable and categorized as a coffee company by consumers. I opted with going with a custom coffee cup icon as part of the logo, with a clean medium sans-serif font to cap off the company title. The reason I went with sans-serif was because it felt cleaner and more modern, which is more inline with Brewer’s Coffee. For the colour scheme of the brand, I opted into going with different shades of brown to represent the types of coffee sold. By including these colours, I could better integrate this into their brand identity and will be a beneficial aspect of their packaging design, as well as their custom coffee cups. By including the coffee cup with the text, the logo will stand apart from its competitors while still being recognizable to the average consumer looking for coffee.
For the packaging, I wanted these to stand out from the rest of the competitors. When doing my research I see alot of companies using the standard images of coffee beans and a cup on their packaging to illustrate that it’s coffee. What I wanted to do was to take a more minimalistic approach. I opted to have the logo as the main draw of the label and having the type of coffee secondary.For the colour scheme, I used three shades of brown to represent the different roasts of coffee. I used a wave shape to illustrate the fluidity of the design, as it’s dealing with coffee and will set itself apart from the standard looks of coffee bean packages. This layout relies heavily on the colour tones of the package to rely the intensity of the coffee beans.
For the cup design, I wanted this to represent the different types or coffee - Light Roast, Original Medium Roast, and Dark Roast. I used more fluid shapes when distributing the colours throughout the cup to give it more of a liquid feel as they are selling coffee, and it adds to the overall aesthetic of the design. I felt that by having a custom cup with an intriguing design, it would entice customers to come in and try the coffee due to it being different then the competitors and in hopes will catch on with social media. By having this, people may just want to try the coffee just to get the picture for Instagram but will stay because of the product.
Overall, this project was a success. By creating a new logo for Brewer’s Coffee that differentiates themselves from their competitors but will still be recognizable that consumers will know what they sell. For the packaging, using a foil package for their products with a clean label will make it stand out on shelves as it varies greatly from what others are doing. As for the coffee cup, since it is disposable, having a different design other than a plain white cup with the logo will keep it apart from what Starbucks is doing as well as give consumers a more “instagrammable” version which should drive more people into the stores.
