Urban Owl Coffee Company
A case study in branding, packaging and livery design for a coffee roaster. Here are the three options presented to the client, culminating with the final winning design.
The first concept came from the client’s imagination: they were inspired by a lot of chunky, geometric, line-based icons they’d scene and asked me to dream up an owl in the same vein. It’s the most book-ish of the bunch, and the owl definitely has a caffeine-buzzed brightness.
Option A: Geometry
This concept is has the most city-like feel to it, and the primary color palette is the most playful. I’m a sucker for iconography, and that’s at the core of this concept: trains, buses, cars, bikes, buildings, planes, factories, water towers, trafic lanes and pedestrian signs — an icon of all the stuff that makes a city a city. In all honesty, this was my favorite of the bunch and wish the client chose it just so I could get my hadns on a tote bag.
Option B: Mass Transit
For the third iteration, I wanted to play with the idea of a map of an urban space, using the geometric beauty of an organic grid of streets and parks and city blocks to frame out our owl shape. This concept is very versatile, holding up in full color and monotone designs. And the owl icon can stand alone (check out that mug mockup!), and the cut-out style type us unique enough to hold up without graphics, too.
Option C: Urban Map
The finalists
A visual summary of the three concepts presented to the client. Their main business was roasting coffee (as opposed to a brick and mortar shop), so the coffee bag is the best representation of how the branding will hold up.
The winner!
UOCCo chose the studious, bookish option A! We refined the owl icon just a bit, and chose to use navy as the base color (instead of black) to help stand apart from most coffee brands.
For the inaugural roasts, we chose a white bag and added a custom label. Custom- printed bag are in the works as the brand grows.