Be honest, have you ever, ever created an amazing design or came up with a great idea and coffee was not involved?

Because, I’ve got to admit… I’ve never had a good idea on a day I didn’t have coffee.

And I might have a little bit of a problem. Recently, I’ve been drinking about 4 cups of coffee a day, and that’s not helping my sleeping habits for sure.

But that’s what gave me this idea.

Today I want to talk to you about coffee branding basics and how to design for your next coffee shop clients or company.

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We’re also going to go over the best examples of coffee branding and graphic design.

So grab your coffee and let’s get into it.

The Basics of Coffee Branding

Coffee is pretty much an essential part of life at this point.

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Almost every single person I know starts their morning off with coffee, then has an afternoon pick-me-up coffee.

And it’s not just my friends who drink that much coffee. It turns out that 75% of all Americans intake their caffeine by drinking coffee.

Besides the fact that it’s just a wonderful beverage with a million and one benefits, from clearer thinking and better ideas, and also helping you stay awake on the days you stayed up absolutely too late, it’s also a drink that brings people together.

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People love to bond and spend time together in coffee shops, people go there to relax, work, have meetings, etc.

On average, a typical American adult will spend about 2 grand a year on buying coffee, and 173 million bags of coffee are consumed worldwide each year.

So this means that now, more than ever, your coffee branding needs to stand out.

When people walk into the grocery store to pick out a bag of coffee beans, their eyes need to be drawn to your design.

But how?

Ask the Right Questions: Assess The Brand’s Values, Strategy, and Style

Before you can hop on any graphic design software and start designing away, you have to stop and think about what your brand’s values are or what your client is expecting from you.

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Here are some questions to ask yourself before designing.

1. What’s the style or vibe you’re going for?
2. Is it a more earthy vibe? Will the colors be neutral or do they want them to be crazy eccentric?
3. What are the values of this coffee company? Are they ethical? How can I express that through my design?
4. Who is my target audience and what would they look for in a coffee brand?

Once you answer some of these basic questions, you can start designing accordingly.

4 Easy Steps to Creating the Perfect Coffee Brand and Logo

1. Come Up With The Right Branding Strategy

As I said, it all comes down asking the right questions, and when you get your answers, you can start coming up with a strategy.

Pinpointing your audience is key in the first steps of designing. Who are you designing for? An elegant brand that requires minimal color and a fancy typeface, or for a younger, more fun generation, where you have the freedom to do whatever you want? No matter the audience, make sure you design with them in mind and what would make the choose your brand.

The brand name is going to decide a lot for you. The creativity wheels will start spinning when you look at the name. Do a play on words, coincide your design to make sense with the name. You can also get a sense of tone-of-voice from the name of the brand and design accordingly.

Your logo should be something that everyone can recognize and something that sparks joy for your clients and customers. But we’ll talk more about this a little later.

2. Use An Irresistible Color Palette

After doing some research and drawing some conclusions from my own experience in designing for coffee brands, most people love earthy tones when it comes to coffee branding.

So whether you go from a toned-down green, or an earthy brown pallette, make sure everything works together perfectly.

Just because most people choose earthy tones, that doesn’t mean that you have to! You can still go for brighter, more vibrant color palettes, but my recommendation is that you use the more muted versions of the colors you choose. So if you want to use orange and green, for example, just use a more muted version of the colors.

Here are a few of my favorite color combinations when it comes to coffee branding.

3. Check Out Your Competitors

One sure fire way to know if you’re doing well is by checking out your competitors.

Check out the ones who are doing better than you, but also the ones in the same boat.

You want to look at their work and not just be a copy-cat of what their doing, but be inspired by them and ask yourself what you have to offer that is different from them and how you can do better.

4. Keep it Simple

When it comes to your logo, the best thing to do is to keep it simple.

Especially nowadays, when the trend is flat-design and minimalist.

You want people to look at your design, and say, “oh yeah! That’s my favorite coffee brand.”

It shouldn’t be so complex that your customers don’t understand what the heck is going on, but it can also have a bit of a back story that needs to be explained.

A perfect combination of the two is the goal here, but keep it simple!

Our Favorite Coffee Branding Examples

I want to close out this article by inspiring you and showing you some examples of my favorite coffee brand designs.

My favorite places to get inspiration from are Pinterest, Dribbble, Behance, and the places around me.

So if you’re lacking inspiration, I hope this helps!

I hope this article helped you out in one way or another and inspired you to get to designing.

So go ahead, grab your coffee and go make something amazing.

And until next time,

Stay creative, folks!

Read More at The Basics of Coffee Branding & Design – Coffee Design Ideas Brewed to Perfection

Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen, because Rolls-Royce just went full-rebrand on us and I’m about to present to you their new and improved brand identity.

Ah, Rolls-Royce. The British luxury car brand that we all know and adore.

They have done a complete 180 and changed literally everything about their brand to please and draw in a younger generation.

Between a new typeface, color palette, new icon, and everything in between, we’re going to be covering it all today.

A Short History of Rolls-Royce

“Rolls-Royce is a pioneer in cutting-edge technologies that deliver the cleanest, safest, and most competitive solutions to meet the planet’s vital power needs.

The company was formed by Charles Rolls and Henry Royce in 1906, following a successful partnership in which the pair developed and sold cars.

While the motor car business subsequently separated in 1973, Rolls-Royce remains one of the world’s leading names in engineering, innovating in civil and defence aerospace, power systems and nuclear technology.”

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When Rolls-Royce decided that it was time to rebrand, they reached out to none other than Pentagram.

Although lots of things have changed regarding the Rolls-Royce rebranding, it is still immediately recognizable, which was important to leadership at RR.

The goal of this rebrand was “to bring coherence, clarity and flexibility to Rolls-Royce and its full suite of products and services”.

Not only does Rolls-Royce create stunning automobiles, but they create a number of things, such as amazing, high-end car accessories, luggage and bags.

So this new logo needed to be flexible and work for multiple platforms.

The New Rolls-Royce Symbol

As you can see, the new Rolls-Royce symbol has been flipped so that it is now facing the right, and has been incredibly simplified, which as we have seen with many other brands, this has been the theme of 2020.

New Rolls-Royce Identity

Now for the big-kicker.

From 1911 until now, the symbol of Rolls-Royce was on the bonnet of every Rolls-Royce.

But 2020 is the year of change, am I right?

From now on, things have been simplified at Rolls-Royce and the identity of RR will now be symbolized as showed in the picture above.

A bold move, but I think it’s great that they are going for more of a minimalist approach.

Rolls-Royce New Color Pallette

New new color pallete for Rolls-Royce consists of purple as the dominant color, with hints of pink and fluoro orange.

According to Willer, purple has always been associated with luxury, and it looks “softer, less masculine and harsh” than black. “It still has authority and elegance, but yet it’s broader not just to gender but culture”.

Rolls-Royce New Typeface

Final Thoughts

I really like this new look that Rolls-Royce adopted and I think it’s great in all aspects, but I do want to know what you guys think of it.

In your personal, professional opinion, what do you think of this rebrand?

Let us know in the comments below and of course…

Until next time,

Stay creative!

Read More at Rolls-Royce Rebranded & Came Rollin’ in With a New Logo and Identity

Yes, the rumors are true and we couldn’t be any more excited.

Michelle Obama has just released a podcast and we’re absolutely obsessed with it.

So basically, if you haven’t heard already, one of Spotify’s biggest original podcast bets, The Michelle Obama Podcast, premiered on July 29th, 2020.

And who, you might ask yourself, had the amazing opportunity and honor to design for Mrs. Obama’s Podcast?

Well, it was none other than the Brooklyn-based creative production studio, And/Or.

According to an interview with And/Or, they stated that there were some difficulties in designing the branding and visuals for this podcast.

The reason being that they couldn’t listen to any of the episodes before the release, so they had to blindly design all of the visuals, and try to match the vibe they were looking for, just right.

And thankfully, they were able to capture Michelle’s personality and professionalism, while also having a bit of fun with the design process to bring some life and color to the visuals.

As And/Or said in their interview with It’s Nice That, “We started with concepts that drew Michelle’s life and history—illustrating important moments from her life over time in a more stoic tone because we didn’t have access to the podcast episodes yet. We developed those directions using context from the First Lady’s book, Becoming.”

The stoic tone that was presented to us in Michelle’s book, Becoming, was replaced with a more colorful, youthful, and fun look to it.

Because this podcast’s aim is to be light-hearted yet helpful and educational, Spotify was open to bright and happy designs, which And/Or was happy to create.

And what’s another one of the many amazing parts of this podcast, you might ask?

Well, let me tell you.

It comes with a new product feature: shareable quote cards.

When you begin to listen to the podcast, which is exclusively available to Spotify users(thank goodness, because that’s the only music streaming platform I use), you’ll be immediately presented with colorful cards with quotes on them that you will be able to share with others.

Of course, you’ll be able to share these quotes on any social media platform that you want, and not only will you be sharing powerful knowledge to all your followers and friends, but you’ll also be sharing beautifully designed quotes shared from Mrs. Obama herself.

“The headline here is Michelle Obama, and our mission was to help that come through, so we were conscious that the graphic should be a support, something that would immediately get to the point and get people excited, and not be too complicated, distracting or overwrought,” Creative director Kendra Eash from And/Or explained.

The overall goal was to amplify Obama’s personality in the podcast while [communicating] the intention of the podcast. Having an elegant typographic solution with a geometric typeface keeps the focus on those ideas. The colorful underline gives a “pop of color and energy to the animation.”

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Overall, we are just obsessed with the new podcast and design that we were recently graced with.

What do you guys think of the new podcast that Michelle Obama released and all of the visuals?

Let us know in the comment section below!

And as always, until next time,

Stay creative, folks!

Read More at Michelle Obama’s New Podcast Branding Reflects Her Personality Perfectly and We’re Loving It

On July 30th, 2020 at 7.50am EDT (4.50am PDT), NASA intends to embark on its Mars 2020 mission with Perseverance, its fifth Mars rover, via the Atlas V rocket to look for evidence of ancient life.

To keep up with where Perseverance is at this very moment, you can check out Nasa’s website with live information.

And along with this new experience, comes a new visual identity and logo.

And who was considered worthy enough to create this once in a lifetime chance to design the logo?

The extraordinary task was assigned to none other than the multidisciplinary designer Tobias van Schneider’s studio House of van Schneider.

According to The House of Van Schneider, NASA emphasized that the new logo needed to encompass “the energy and legacy of space travel”, while simultaneously being able to bring immense amounts of honor to the engineers who worked day and night to make this historical moment possible.

Here’s what the team had to say about this momentous opportunity.

From the moment we first set eyes on our sparkling sky, there was no going back.

“We had to know what lay beyond our planet and when we found out, we had to know more.

Our curiosity and perseverance have put us into space, on the moon and now: to Mars.

For the 2020 launch of the Mars Rover, NASA asked House of van Schneider to design a symbol capturing the energy and legacy of space travel, while celebrating the engineers who worked tirelessly on this mission.

At once an abstract representation of the iconic rover and blocks reaching up to the sky, the logomark works as beautifully on the rover as it does on a 191-foot tall rocket ship.”

This new, abstract symbol is amazingly intricate, yet simple.

The 2D design symbolizes the iconic rover, whose structure is recognizable from any distance, that is going towards the Red Planet. You can even see planet earth in the distance of this design.

There’s nothing quite like this logo.

It perfectly encompasses what humanity once saw as only a dream, now made a reality.

This truly must’ve been a bucket-list moment, just like Van Schneider said.

I can’t imagine having the immense honor of creating something so historical for Nasa.

Truly, amazing.

Read More at Nasa’s New Mars 2020 Logo is Amazing and We’re Over The Moon

Wow, has 2020 been a rollercoaster.

For many, many reasons, but one in particular is that it seems to me that every single big player in the car industry game is redesigning their logo.

And they’re all revamping and going for a flat logo design.

First it was BMW, then VW, then just last week it was Nissan and I really thought we weren’t going to be hit with anymore major changes.

But now, we see Toyota coming in hot with a brand new logo design specifically for Europe.

And the people are torn.

Toyota’s New Logo Design

This is Toyota’s first redesign since 2009, and I’m personally happy to say that not only did they decide to drop the incredibly bright red color in the logo, they also decided to drop their famous wordmark.

And also, did you happen to notice how the top of the smaller, center ellipsis doesn’t connect to the top of the logo anymore?

Yes, it irks us as much as I’m sure it irks you too.

I have no idea why they chose to do that, and the internet is not very happy about it.

But I must say, I am in favor of the flat design and the monochrome color scheme they chose to go with in this new Toyota logo.

The red is not completely gone tho, as they use it in different parts of the marketing.

Which I’m honestly not opposed to. A little bit of color in a monochrome scheme can be an amazing idea.

Another selling point that we love is the new sans serif that they came out with and they said that their aim is to be “approachable, human and highly technical, and it has been conscientiously engineered.”

This Sans Serif comes in four preferred and two optional weights, with each weight coming in upright and italics. 

The Drop of The Wordmark

One of the most noticeable feature of all, besides the fact that they embraced a flat design and changed their color design, is that they dropped their iconic wordmark.

But, because Toyota’s logo is such a strong one, it can 100% stand alone and be recognized just as easily with or without the wordmark.

Personally, the more minimal, the better.

So, yes, dropping the wordmark was definitely a bold move, but a smart one.

In Conclusion

Here’s what Toyota had to say about their new logo and design.

“The aim of the redesign was to build Toyota’s image as a more progressive brand, while guaranteeing longevity in a digital world and ensuring that the brand continues to appeal to a modern and expanding customer base.

The direction for the new VI is shaped by four key goals: Forward-Thinking, More Premium feel, Consistent and Mobile-First.

The&Partnership’s design approach employed simplification, distilling Toyota’s key visual properties into a clean, considered system that better unifies the brand.

At its core is the new logo, which distils the brand’s emblem to a simplified 2-D design, losing the ‘Toyota’ wordmark; an acknowledgement of its status as one of the most recognisable brands in the world.

The new bespoke typography is Toyota Type, a sans serif font which enhances clarity and consistency across Toyota’s different business units.

Emphasising this is the primary colour palette, a clean, premium monochrome, with a red accent that provides a distinctive nod to Toyota.

The brand architecture has been streamlined and simplified through name changes, consistent typesetting and logo lock-ups.”

All in all, I think that the update was desperately needed and it looks much, much cleaner and modern.

The only thing is that little elipisis that doesn’t touch the top of the logo.

Honestly, it bothers me more than I thought it would.

But other than that, a great update.

What do you guys think of this new logo and all of these new car logos in general?

Let us know in the comment section below!

Until next time,

Stay creative, folks!

Read More at Toyota’s New Logo 2020 | The Iconic Wordmark Was Dropped and Design Simplified

We all know that flat design is all the rage right now, and for good reason.

Almost every major company that has done a logo redesign in the past two years has gone for a completely minimalist and simple design.

Nissan is no exception.

Nissan’s New Logo Design 2020

After nearly 20 years, Nissan has gone through its first redesign glow-up and we are loving it.

It all started in 2017…

The Nissan redesign process all began back in the summer of 2017.

Nissan’s Senior Vice President of Global Design, Alfonso Albaisa, started looking at the logo and decided it needed a good freshening-up.

The design team at Nissan took this time to decide how they were going to redesign the logo.

They thought of everything from a complete and total revamping of the logo, or just a simplified version that is sleek and modern and fits every occasion.

This new simplified version of Nissan’s logo still holds fast to its original logo roots but fits better in our modern world than the anterior logo.

This is their first logo redesign in 20 years, which to me is just mind-boggling. 

And the first sign we got that they were under redesign was back in March of 2020 when they applied for some trademarks. 

The 3 words that Alfonso and Tsutomu Matsuo(Nissan’s design department deputy general manager) used to describe the new logo for Nissan were “thin, light and flexible”.

And the new logo is nothing short of that.

This new logo needed to be sleek and minimal, but they also wanted it to glow.

In an era where people are leaning towards getting electric cars, this new logo needed to stand out and match the style of a new and modern electric car. 

In order for this logo to look good across all digital platforms and also in real life on cars, the design team needed to decide on an appropriate thickness that would always be visible. 

Like I said, Nissan really held onto the heritage of the original logo and the slogan they work by, which states “If you have a strong belief, it penetrates even the sun.” 

You can see this implemented through the fundamental elements in the logo, which are the circle and the horizontal plate of the name.

So while the new design isn’t completely revamped, it definitely looks a lot better and newer.

It looks amazing across all platforms and also when it’s displayed on the car.

We are huge fans of Nissan’s new logo design.

In Conclusion

2020 has been the year that lots of car companies have redesigned their logos.

First, we saw BMW come in full force with a gorgeous, minimalistic logo redesign. Secondly, we saw VW hit us with a new sleek design, and now Nissan.

Who do you think will grace us next with a new logo design?

What do you think of Nissan’s new logo? Are you for it or would you have done things differently?

Let us know in the comment section down below.

Until next time,

Stay creative!

Read More at Nissan Releases New Logo Design After Nearly 20 Years

Have you ever wondered what a bitten apple and technology have in common?

The Apple logo has become one of the most iconic and world-wide known logo, but not many people know the history and the meaning behind the bitten apple.

Today, we’re going to dive into the history of the Apple logo, so you can know all about it. 

And hey, it’s a cool party story to tell… that is, if you go to parties. I wouldn’t know.  #quarantinelife 

The first logo of the company doesn’t look at all like the actual one that represents the Apple brand.

And if you ask me, it actually gives me kind of creepy vibes.

The first logo of Apple only survived for one year before Steve Jobs asked the talented artist Rob Janoff to create something more modern and representative for Apple. 

The final logo, designed by Ronald Wayne and Steve Jobs, illustrated Sir Isaac Newton under an apple tree, and for the background, it had a poem written on the side of the drawing.

The quotation by Wordsworth that was also inscribed into the logo said: “Newton… a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought.”

The Apple Logo: How did it become an iconic image of the company?

The iconic Apple logo, the bitten apple that we all know and love, can now be found on all the company’s products.

This apple was created by Rob Janoff in the ’70s.

According to Rob, the reason Steve Jobs wanted the apple to have a bite mark in it, was so that no one would mistake the apple for a tomato.

You can also look at the bite as a clever play on words.

Instead of spelling it B-I-T-E, you can spell it B-Y-T-E, as in the measurement for digital storage.

It is, of course, a strong reference for a tech company.

The rainbow Apple Logo

So soon after they retired good old Isaac Newton and the weird first logo, the first iconic version of the bitten apple was presented as a rainbow-striped apple.

This Apple logo represented the company between 1976 and 1998.

Rob Janoff explains why Jobs opted for the rainbow in one of his interviews.

Once the personal computer Apple II was launched, it was the first computer ever that could display colors on the screen.

A huge win for Apple and for all of humanity.

We come a long way since then, huh? 

Crazy to think that it wasn’t even that long ago that we didn’t have computers that displayed colors!

The representatives of the company wanted to make this fact known by all, thus was born the rainbow apple.

Also, the colors were also an attempt to make the logo more accessible and to attract the young generation.

Here is Apple II in all of her spectacular glory.

In 1998, things started to change again, which means that the Apple logo went through a change as well.

As should all companies after a while!

Steve Jobs decided to change the rainbow apple into a monochromatic apple. 

A great, modern move on their part.

Apple always seems to be in the lead.

The rainbow colors of the apple were going to go out of fashion and just wouldn’t cut it anymore.

Especially when the decided to put the logo on the back of all their products, for everyone to see.

The new monochromatic logo matched the image of the newest products on the market better than anything else.

Regarding the name of the company, there are many speculations.

Unfortunately, there isn’t one most plausible theory among all the existent ones.

Some believe that the founder’s, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak, wanted their start-up to appear on the first pages of the phone books.

Others believe that they wanted to stand out of the crowd with a simple name, that was easy to be remembered by.

They wanted to create a contrast between their company and all the other hard to remember names of tech companies such as TRS-80, IBM, or Cincom.

Also, the idea that the founders wanted to bring a tribute to The Beatles’ record label.

As time went on, Apple kept simplifying their logo all the more.

Now, their logo is minimalistic and you can find it in different colors across all products; Gold, Rosegold, Silver, and Black.

Despite the color changes that we’ve been seeing since the ’70s, the apple has and probably will remain intact from here on out.

The iconic apple is here to stay, with just a few modifications here and there every few years.

What do you guys think of Apple’s logo?

If you were in complete control of creating a new logo, would you totally revamp it? If so, then how?

Let us know in the comment section below.

Until next time,

Stay creative, folks!

Read More at The Fascinating History of the Apple Logo – 2020 Update