Coffeebar Rebrand
BRANDING | PACKAGE DESIGN | ILLUSTRATION |
CREATIVE DIRECTION
Client: Coffeebar
Agency: Coffeebar, Creative Director
ACCOLADES & FEATURES
2019 National American Advertising Award (ADDY) Winner — Coffee Packaging Rebrand
2019 Design Lab — Packaging Design | SCA Specialty Coffee Expo
Savor Brands | 2020 SCA Pono Collective
COFFEEBAR, a company spanning from the Sierra Mountains to the Bay, has built its core around vertical coffee sourcing — where quality goes hand-in-hand with long-term partnerships with coffee producers and importers and a genuine commitment to origin. The final key to this mission was to open the Coffeebar Roastery in 2017 and roast all of our coffees in-house. We decided that rebranding our packaging was the natural step to inform our guests and celebrate this milestone. As the Creative Director of Coffeebar, I wanted to honor Coffeebar’s path. Drawing from the richness of our stories, brand ethos, and history, we reinvigorated the brand through bright colors and illustration — reinforcing the hand-crafted nature that goes into everything Coffeebar produces.
First and foremost, this coffee packaging highlighted the vertical sourcing philosophy. The side of the bag depicted the coffee’s journey from farmer to guest. From there, each house blend was inspired by our Truckee, CA roots, the people essential to Coffeebar’s start, and the history of our company. Digging deeper into these stories, this new creative took shape.
Coffeebar Subscription Photography Campaign - 2020 District 14 ADDY Winner
Photo Credit & Creative Collaboration with Eunice Choi
House Blends. Hand Roasted. Vertically Sourced.
Giuseppe
Italian Roast
Coffeebar’s classic dark roast, named after the beloved lion mascot, Giuseppe, is inspired by Coffeebar’s beginnings and our Italian roots. For those who don’t know the tale (no pun intended), Giuseppe came to Coffeebar’s owner, Greg Buchheister, in a dream when Coffeebar was still just an idea. It was a dream of a warrior battling a giant lion. Finally conquering it with a spear, the warrior forever honored the lion and the challenge that it presented. This dream parallels the story of Hercules and Leo the lion and is the inspiration for the constellation design.
Zephyr
Espresso Blend
The design for the espresso blend was inspired by Coffeebar’s Truckee-Tahoe origins and the winds that blow over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. A zephyr is a soft gentle breeze, named after the Greek god of the West Winds. It has ties to the Buchheister family as the Zephyr Express chairlift that took Coffeebar’s owner up the mountains in his ski racing days, the California Zephyr train that tied his wife's hometown from Chicago to California, and the name of his son. Like espresso that pushes you throughout the day, this design is inspired by the flowing movement of wind rolling over the mountains and the beauty of the place we call home.
Prima Donna
Decaf Blend
Inspired by Coffeebar’s fiercest ladies and diehard decaf drinkers, the Prima Donna was born. Meaning “Leading Lady” in Italian, the name and skeleton coffee bag design is a nod to Coffeebar’s original decaf blend, Morte Prima (“Death Before”). Making decaf sexy, our pinup skeleton lady is for those too kick ass for caffeine. Other ties to Coffeebar in this design are the lion skull and sprigs of lavender, a nod to Coffeebar’s signature decaf lavender lattes.
