Coffee Shop Branding
The Background
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Awakenings is the name of a small, local coffee shop in Spokane Washington. It is attached to Zion Spokane church, but is independent enough to attract customers throughout the week. It uses locally roasted beans from other shops in the “artisan coffee alliance”, which is a collection of small businesses dealing in cups of coffee. Awakenings makes its own lavender syrup in the summer and pumpkin spice purees in the fall. It specializes in the community of coffee and each cup is hand crafted with its own art in the foam. From the moment you walk through a door you are greeted by warm smiles and warmer coffee. The logo design was made as an assignment, but the shop has since adopted a similar version of the logo that now adorns the outside of the rustic brick building.
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The Process
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I knew that I wanted the logos for this shop to communicate the friendly atmosphere and comfort that you feel upon walking through the door and sitting in a couch next to one of the shop’s large picture windows. I knew that it would be necessary to create a horizontal logo, as well as a stacked logo to print on cups, packaging, etc. if that ever becomes a need. Beginning with a horizontal logo, I chose a script font and began working on the typographic pairings in the logo. After exploring several options, I decided to pair the script with a simple geometric sans-serif as a complement.
The Design
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I think that typographic logos are very effective in communicating the personality of a brand, so I chose to keep the illustrative elements to a minimal to prevent business and overcrowding of the logo. I surrounded the typography with an ovoid shape with a navy stroke and lighter blue fill. I used the A to connect the circle, and therefore didn’t fill in the negative space under the A with the lighter blue color. After I finished the horizontal logo, I began on the stacked version. I decided to forgo the lengthy word “awakenings” and center a large A within the circle with the words “coffee co.” lined up along the right vertical edge of the letter. I think this design is more effective in comparison to using the entire word because the stacked logo is most often used in smaller platforms. The entire word is fairly intricate, and it think it would be difficult to read and lose its effectiveness if it was scaled that small.
