Between the late 2000s and the early 2010s, the coffee industry turned its attention to ‘craft’, elevating the beverage to a gourmet offering. When it came to brand storytelling, flavour notes, provenance and sustainability became key components. These features came to define what’s now known as ‘third-wave coffee’, which pre-dates the gamified science-infused ‘fourth-wave coffee’ movement in terms of textures...
The unity of coffee-boffins and great typographic choices seems to be having a moment right now on BP&O. Just the other week we covered the truly superb work for Dark Arts Coffee by Not Wieden + Kennedy. Now, though, we’re heading down under – specifically to the Sydney suburb of Lane Cove, home to Story Café. Story Café opened in...
If a brand that fuses memes, hot takes, occultism, and coffee is going to succeed anywhere, it’s probably in east London. Dark Arts Coffee started out in 2014 in a Homerton railway arch, and managed to corner that distinct subgenre of goth/metal/biker-ish aesthetics which opts for craft ale over snakebite; Hackney over Camden; self-care over self-destruction. Where the old guard,...
Where have all the simple playful ideas gone? You know the ones, a bit of wit, spun into a multitude of playful expressions across a number of different touch-points? Design craft has gotten so good over the last few years, but I miss the smile-in-the-mind stuff. Paul Belford’s New Chapter, Seachange’s Think Packaging and Mucho’s Art Walk. They’re not strategic...
Anyone over about 25 would likely feel that of all people, big-time YouTubers aren’t exactly in need of a coffee fix: high-octane, breathless excitement and endless, pause free chitchat don’t exactly scream ‘3pm slump’. However, Irish YouTuber Seán McLoughlin, aka Jacksepticeye – who boasts more than 52 million social media followers, and nearly 16 billion views on YouTube alone –...
Oslo-based multi-disciplinary design studio Olssøn Barbieri has created the brand identity for Los Angeles-based speciality coffee roastery Stereoscope, working across its packaging design and printed materials with a typography-led approach that celebrates tactility. According to Olssøn Barbieri, Stereoscope is underpinned by a philosophy that sees coffee as a living organism rather than a commodity, and which takes its responsibility to...
Global strategy, branding, packaging, and graphic design studio Mucho created this colourful new identity for coffee tech startup BrewBird, working with Scottish artist Craig Black. Mucho was appointed to create a new brand identity and ‘memorable’ packaging system to help BrewBird communicate its story around uniting cutting-edge tech, taste, and ‘the artisanal craft of coffee roasters’. According to Mucho, drip...
From à la mode Lick paint to gramable Aokka coffee, everything comes in a tin these days. The rise of metal packaging solutions in food and beverages, healthcare, household and consumer is expected to accelerate by 3.1% year-on-year from 2021 to 2030, driven by the demand for sustainable alternatives to plastic and lightweight substitutes for glass. Aesthetically speaking, the tin...
Few products have successfully integrated ethical, sustainable and environmental concerns with a product than coffee. It’s hard to imagine a time when the conditions of cultivation (both human and environmental) were not equal to flavour and – if we’re getting technical – whether the roast is blended or single origin. With its smaller volumes, the speciality coffee market has challenged...
Shy Bird is a all-day café, rotisserie and bar in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Its core mission is to elevate chicken, and the experience of eating chicken into the realms of the exceptional through gastronomic know-how, a beautiful interior and a visual identity designed by American studio Perky Bros. Drawing their inspiration from the red junglefowl, the “original chicken” and descendant of the domestic chicken, and...
EDIYA is a well-established South Korean coffee brand, with franchised stores and array of drinks and branded products. It has the largest number of stores, exceeding that of Starbucks and any other international brands, opening its 3000th store at the end of 2019. With such a strong foothold in the market, and with the rise of at-home and ready-to-drink variations...
NOR Specialities supports the development of plantation farmers and helps sustain local communities across Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Bolivia by way of its range of chocolate, cocoa nibs, roasted coffee beans and cold brew coffee products. NOR trades directly with family farms and producers of its raw ingredients, working with them to develop transparent and sustainable practices. Danish design studio Re-public worked with...