Duluth Coffee Company

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Duluth Coffee Company

Duluth Coffee Company

Duluth Coffee Company

Food & Beverage

What We Made

Product Packaging

Design
Interior & Exterior Store Design
Print

Tags

beverage

coffee

duluth

label

package

Challenge

Duluth Coffee Company is a staple in the Duluth area. But despite their popularity, many coffee lovers don’t know the depth the business takes to sources, test, and roast their coffees.

Concept

To highlight Duluth Coffee's dedication, we created new package designs emphasizing simplicity and their hand-drawn illustrations. These illustrations, featuring nods to coffee plants and local landmarks, deepen the connection between coffee origins and community. Additionally, we revamped their labeling system for clearer communication of coffee varieties and flavor profiles.

Outcome

The redesigned packages and printed materials reflect Duluth Coffee's essence—care, quality, and community ties. The simplified yet striking designs stand out on shelves, showcasing the company's commitment from cultivation to cup. These efforts enhance customer engagement and loyalty, further establishing Duluth Coffee Company as a beloved local staple.

Challenge

Duluth Coffee Company is a staple in the Duluth area. But despite their popularity, many coffee lovers don't know the depth the business takes to sources, test, and roast their coffees. Duluth Coffee heavily focuses on bringing intention and integrity from cultivation to cup. It's because of this that they offer single-sourced coffee from farmers they have actual relationships with. Owner, Eric, and his team regularly travel to the coffee farms they partner with to foster those relationships. This also gives them a first hand look at the beans and how they're grown.This level of care and involvement in the entire process is a huge differentiator for Duluth Coffee. So, when they came to us to create new package designs for their coffee, it was something we definitely wanted to showcase. But figuring out how to do that is what would be the challenge.

Solution

For the new package design, we dove into so many options. The sky is truly the limit with unless bag and printing options. We took this opportunity to really stretch what Duluth Coffee had done in the past; however, we can back to the classic brown bag that Duluth Coffee is known for. The simplicity stands out on the shelves and helps capture that 'back to the roots' care the business has for each coffee bean.Playing off of the hand-drawn illustrations that Duluth Coffee had built up recognition around, we filled out the sides of the bags with custom illustrations as well. Except the new illustrations are nods to the coffee plant that the business takes such a special interest as well as the Ariel Lift Bridge. An homage to the company's namesake and hometown. The two together show the connection between the coffee origins and our community. Both illustrations only show a close up portion of the bridge and the plant, giving a unique perspective. Much like how Duluth Coffee aims to bring coffee drinkers into the fold of the coffee growing and making process.For the labels that would go on the bags, we kept them simple yet striking. However, the real work that went into these happened behind the scenes. While designing how the different type of coffees would be presented, we created an entirely new system for how Duluth Coffee talks about their various coffees. Each type has the farm and coffee name prominently present as well as the flavor notes you can expect to experience and the variety. Each coffee has a corresponding color associated with it, making the line up of all the coffee bags richly engaging.

More Beverage Package Design Work

The package design work we've been able to do for various companies have been some of our favorite project. Nothing beats being able to hold something tangible you've created. Peruse through the projects below to see other package design work we've done for other beverages.

Product Packaging

Coffee Bag Design

The new package design for Duluth Coffee explored numerous options, emphasizing versatility in bag and printing choices. Despite this exploration, they returned to the classic brown bag for a simplistic, shelf-standout appearance that reflects the company's deep-rooted care for their coffee beans. Incorporating hand-drawn illustrations, the bags now feature custom artwork depicting coffee plants and the Ariel Lift Bridge, symbolizing the connection between the company's origins and its community. The labels on these bags are simple yet eye-catching, showcasing a new system that highlights each coffee's farm, name, flavor notes, and variety with corresponding colors for an engaging lineup. This comprehensive approach aims to immerse coffee drinkers in the journey of coffee growing and making.

What they said and how they felt

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What they said and how they felt

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What they said and how they felt

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What they said and how they felt

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Interior & Exterior Store Design
Print

Store Board + Cafe Menu Design

Having worked together on so many projects, we’ve gotten to really know the business, its brand, and their vision. This type of deep understanding allows us to be really efficient when new projects come up because we don’t have to start from scratch with discovery research. Their company, industry, and competitors are already fresh in our minds, so we can hit the ground running much faster. Because of this, we were able to create an interior hanging menu board and printed cafe menus, effectively and quickly.

What they said and how they felt

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What they said and how they felt

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What they said and how they felt

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More of what we have made

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