Volcano Coffee Works, an independent coffee roaster based in Brixton came to us with a challenge to rejuvenate their packaging portfolio and create a new e-commerce website.
We were delighted when coffee experts Volcano approached us to work with them. With a portfolio and website that had evolved over time and feeling a little disjointed, the brief was to rationalise, harmonise and refresh the brand.
As a truly artisanal, craft, small batch roaster, they roast and pack everything by hand, they support sustainable fair trade and have a great story to tell.
Working closely together with the founders at Volcano, who supplied a principal creative theme, part of the challenge was how to appeal to both the Baristas in London’s finest hipster cafes, through to the consumer shopping in the high-end deli or supermarket.
We developed a distinctive, flexible design system for the packaging range which was able to cater to both wholesale and retail audience needs. Bucking the craft trend we chose to use a single minded rich black paired with bold bright colours creating a modern, premium feel.
With a range of formats and sizes, the design system had to flex across a large portfolio including coffee pods, 200g-2kg coffee bags, outerpackaging and co-branded packaging for WeWork and charities such as Crisis.
For the retail range, we crafted a small repeat pattern with colour pairings that tell the story of the unique flavour profiles. This gave the patterns a presence and real standout creating a blocking effect on shelf.
The wholesale range was a little more complex. This had to cater to the baristas preference of using a subtle brand mark on pack, but with increased differentiation to ensure the blends are easily identifiable in a busy cafe.
The resulting portfolio is a considered and simple solution to the challenges faced by independent brands, needing to meet the expectations and demands of a wide consumer base. Maximum efficiencies needed to be achieved for production along with ensuring the packaging was fit for purpose in a hands-on roastery environment.
The new packaging range launched at the London Coffee Festival in the Truman Brewery, London.
Along with the packaging a new e-commerce website was developed that would put the company’s ethos, people and products centre stage. Taking visual cues from the packaging to ensure the look and feel carried across the online shopping experience.
The result is a site that pushes a theme with customised layouts, giving the site a highly
-bespoke design while retaining all the e-commerce power of the platform. The site allows customers to subscribe and pay monthly and includes an integrated subscription checkout that uses existing Shopify product pages, checkout flow and order backend.
"We are absolutely delighted with the results of our work with 999, they created a fantastic new look for our packaging whilst honouring the essence of our brand.
The whole team at 999 were a pleasure to work with, responding tirelessly to the many questions and changes that happen when working with passionate entrepreneurs! I have recommended them countless times since this work and we are already working with them again ourselves."
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