We’ve spent twenty years designing for specialty coffee, from roasters and cafés to importers and equipment makers, and for plenty of businesses outside it. You work directly with the two of us. We start by learning your business, then design a logo and everything that goes with it: color, type, patterns, and icons, tested on your bags, cups, signs, and screens.
Every identity starts with something true.
For Santiam it was a river. For Oren’s, the New York subway map. For Oliver’s, a record label. For Sum›One, a coffee’s life from seed to cup. Here’s what we found for four clients, and what we built from it.
Sum›One is Farmer Brothers’ specialty coffee brand. We built the identity around a coffee’s whole life, from seed to cup: cherry reds, dew blues, and a grid of beans, cherries, brewers, and cups that moves across the bag. Even the monogram does it. The S and O interlock into a seedling that’s also a curl of steam.
Say “Santiam” in Stayton and people think of the river, the high school, or this company. The old logo already knew that: a river winding through a red square to make an S. We kept the idea and redrew it as two halves that meet in the middle, then surrounded Santiam red with fir green and river blue, plus a steelhead and an elk from the Valley.
Oren’s Coffee has been a New York institution since 1986. When they needed a refresh, we looked to the city itself: the clarity of Vignelli’s subway map, the geometry of Art Deco.
Each Oliver’s Custom Coffee bag is designed like a record release, with artwork that changes with the region. We built the Oliver’s identity to work like a record label logo, so every release still reads as Oliver’s.
Every new identity includes the first four. Naming and voice are there if you need them.
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Logo and marks
A main logo, plus smaller marks for cups, stamps, stickers, and social icons.
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Color and type
A palette and typefaces that work in print, on signs, and on screen.
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Patterns, illustration, and icons
So people know it’s you even when the logo isn’t there.
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A guide to using it
Clear rules, practical examples, and files ready to go, for your team, printer, and sign shop. Bigger teams may want full brand guidelines.
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Naming, if you need it
For a new business, café, or product line. More on naming.
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Story and voice, if you need it
What you say and how you say it. More on story & voice.
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Research
Every project starts with discovery. We put on our anthropologist hats and listen to your team, your customers, and your market before we draw anything.
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Concepts
Two or three directions, each with the thinking behind it. You pick one and we refine it together.
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System
We build out color, type, patterns, and icons, then try them on real packaging, signs, and screens before anything is final.
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Handoff
Logo files for every use and a guide your team and vendors can follow. When you need a new bag or sign later, we’re a call away.
What does brand identity design cost?
A refresh built from your existing logo starts around $7,500. A new identity, with logo, color, type, supporting elements, and a brand guide, starts around $12,000. Full brand foundations, with research, positioning, voice, naming, and complete guidelines, start around $20,000. Once we’ve learned about your business, we’ll give you a fixed price for the scope we agree on.
How long does it take?
A refresh takes about six weeks. A new identity or a full brand foundation usually takes two to three months, depending on how much research and naming is involved.
Do we need a new brand, or just a refresh?
Often just a refresh. If people already recognize your logo, we can sharpen it and build out the system around it, as we did for Oren’s Coffee. If it’s holding you back, we’ll say so.
How many logo options will we see?
Usually two or three directions, each with the thinking behind it, then two rounds of changes on the one you pick.
Can you name the business too?
Yes. We named Materia Prima, Stanza, and Seven Fortunes. More on naming.
Do you only work with coffee companies?
No. Coffee is where we’ve done the most work, but we design for all kinds of businesses, like Santiam Heating & Sheet Metal in Stayton, Oregon.
Can you design our packaging and website too?
Yes, and it helps to plan them together. Identity work often leads into coffee packaging and a Shopify or WooCommerce store.
Tell us about your business and what you need. You’ll hear back from one of the two people who’d do the work.