Service 06 · Brand & Identity
BRAND &
Identitya brand people remember
Most coffee shops get to a logo and stop. The logo goes on the cups, the signage, maybe a social profile photo — and the brand work is declared done. But a logo without a brand behind it is just decoration. It doesn't give your team a voice. It doesn't explain why someone should choose you over the café two streets away.
We start with what your café actually is — its character, its values, who it's for — and build outward from there. Naming, visual identity, packaging, digital presence. Every element earns its place because it's grounded in something real, not because it looked good on a mood board.
What's Included
Naming
A name is the most compressed version of your brand positioning — and one of the hardest decisions to undo. We run a structured naming process that explores personality, memorability, and availability (trademark and domain), and give you a shortlist with rationale rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it option.
Logo & Visual Identity
Logo, typography, colour palette, and the rules for how they work together. We brief and direct specialist designers rather than designing in-house — so you get the best creative talent for your project, not one person's default style. We stay involved to make sure every feedback round moves it forward.
Packaging Design
Coffee packaging is marketing that travels. A well-designed bag reaches customers who've never visited your café, signals quality before a single cup is poured, and makes wholesale accounts feel like partnerships rather than transactions.
Digital Presence
Website direction, social profile setup, and the visual language that keeps your brand consistent from physical space to screen. We don't build websites, but we specify what yours should say and how it should look — so whoever builds it does it right.
Brand Guidelines
The document that makes your brand reliable at scale. Typography rules, colour values, tone of voice, photography direction, logo usage. Without it, your brand drifts every time someone new joins the team or a supplier asks for assets.
Creative Direction
Ongoing creative input for shoots, seasonal campaigns, packaging updates, and brand extensions — for clients who want a consistent creative eye without hiring in-house. Someone who knows your brand and keeps it coherent as you grow.
In Practice
Client
Copper & Grain
Specialty roastery · Birmingham
Before
Low
After
Strong
Before
2/mo
After
14/mo
Before
340
After
4,200
The Situation
Copper & Grain were producing excellent coffee from their Birmingham roastery but their branding had been built piecemeal — a logo from a student designer, Canva social posts, and packaging that looked like every other specialty bag on the shelf. Their coffee was better than their brand suggested. Wholesale enquiries were arriving at two per month, almost all from cold outreach.
The Outcome
We ran a full brand project — discovery workshop, visual identity, packaging redesign, and a simple but coherent web presence. The positioning was rebuilt around the people growing the coffee as much as the people roasting it. Wholesale enquiries moved from two per month to fourteen. Social following grew from 340 to 4,200 in six months.
How It Works
Brand Discovery
1 week
A structured workshop exploring your values, your audience, your competitors, and the gap in the market you're trying to occupy. We come out of this with a written positioning document that every creative decision is tested against.
Concept Development
2–3 weeks
Based on the positioning, we develop creative directions — typically two or three distinct routes — across naming (if required), typography, colour, and tone of voice. Presented with rationale, not just visuals, so every choice can be debated clearly.
Design & Refinement
2–3 weeks
The chosen direction is developed to full identity system level, with your designer working under our creative direction. We manage the feedback rounds to keep the project moving and the creative coherent — no death by committee.
Delivery
1 week
Final brand files, guidelines document, and a handover session. You leave with everything needed to brief a signage maker, a packaging printer, a web developer, or a new member of staff — and have them all represent your brand consistently.
Investment
Fixed-fee project
From £3,000
Brand projects are scoped individually because the scope varies significantly — from a focused identity refresh to a full naming and launch project. Everything starts with a conversation. We give you a fixed fee before any work begins and are transparent about what's included and what sits outside scope.
Prices exclude VAT. Third-party design production costs are quoted separately.
Common Questions
Do you do the design work yourselves?
We brief and direct specialist freelance designers rather than designing in-house. This means you get a creative specialist whose work is genuinely right for your project, not one generalist style. We own the brief, the process, and the quality control — the designer works within our framework.
How long does a coffee shop branding project take?
A typical full brand project runs six to eight weeks from discovery to delivery. A focused identity refresh — working with an existing name and direction — can be completed in three to four weeks. We scope timelines before starting and build in review rounds so nothing drags.
We already have a logo. Can you work with it?
Yes — many projects are brand development rather than brand creation. We assess what you have, identify what's working and what to evolve, and build the surrounding brand system — guidelines, tone of voice, packaging approach, digital direction — rather than starting from scratch.
Do you build websites?
We don't build or develop websites. We do specify them — writing the brief, establishing the visual direction, and defining the user journey — so whoever builds yours does it correctly from the start. We can recommend web developers who understand hospitality brands.
Related Services
From concept to opening day
Café Strategy
We help you build the foundations before you commit to a lease. Business planning, financial modelling, site selection criteria, and a launch roadmap that accounts for the things first-time owners always miss.
Spaces that work and feel right
Interior Design
Layout planning, material specification, and customer flow — working alongside your architect or fit-out contractor to make sure the space functions as well as it looks. Great design isn't decoration; it's the bar working for you.
The right coffee for your café
Coffee Sourcing
Supplier selection, origin shortlisting, quality calibration, and contract structure. Whether you want a consistent house espresso, a rotating guest program, or a full single-origin filter menu — we help you find the right partners.
let us build it together
READY FOR A
brand that lasts?
Book a free 30-minute discovery call. We'll talk through what you're building, what stage you're at, and whether there's a fit. No pitch, no obligation.