Client name withheld under NDA.
The cafe had a good product and a loyal local crowd, but the brand around it had grown by accident. The logo was a template picked on opening week. The menu used one typeface, the cups another, and the Instagram feed looked like three different cafes. The owners were about to open a second outlet and knew that a brand which only worked at one counter would not travel.
The brief was simple: make the cafe look like it tastes. We wanted a brand customers could recognise from across the street, remember by name and pass on to friends. It also had to be simple enough for the team to apply without a designer in the room. Before any design started, we recorded the numbers below from the point of sale and social accounts so the results could be judged fairly.
We spent time in the cafe at different hours, interviewed the owners and regulars, and looked at the other cafes within walking distance. The finding was that customers described the place as warm, a bit playful and very consistent with its coffee, but nothing on the walls or cups said that. The brand was quieter than the cafe.
A cafe sells a feeling as much as a drink. If the brand does not say what the room feels like, customers fall back on comparing price and location.
We designed a primary logo, a compact mark for cups and social profiles, a colour palette drawn from the cafe's own interior and two typefaces. Three logo routes were presented, one was chosen and refined through two rounds of changes.
The cafe needed a logo that reads at the size of a cup sleeve and on a shopfront. Simple shapes and strong contrast do that better than detail. We also tested the mark in one colour, for stamps and stickers, and on a dark background.
We wrote a short guideline covering logo use, colours, type, tone of voice and photography style, with examples of what to do and what to avoid. It was written for the staff who order the signage and the freelancer who posts to Instagram, not for a design team. It also lists the exact paint, print and cup specifications so a supplier can match them without asking.
Consistency is where most small brands fall apart. A two-page guide that anyone can follow keeps the second outlet looking like the first.
The new identity was applied to the shopfront sign, menu boards, cups, sleeves, paper bags, takeaway boxes and staff aprons. We briefed the suppliers, checked printer proofs and approved colour samples before anything went to production.
Customers meet a cafe brand on cups and bags long before they read a website. Print quality and colour accuracy are part of the brand. A cup that comes out a shade off looks like a copy of the cafe, not the cafe.
We built Instagram templates and a highlights set, refreshed the Google Business Profile with the new logo and photos, and tracked sales, followers, profile visits and branded searches each month against the baseline.
A rebrand only pays off if people see it. Launching the identity across social and Google at the same time meant new customers met one consistent cafe, not two. Old logos on third-party listing sites were replaced where we could, and flagged where we could not.
Three months after the new brand went live, the original outlet was taking more transactions, each at a higher average spend, and far more people were looking the cafe up before visiting. The second outlet opened with an identity that already had recognition behind it, so the team spent its launch budget on the new neighbourhood, not on introducing a new look.
Discovery, logo, identity system, guidelines, signage, menu and packaging approved and produced.
New identity live in store, on social and on Google. Staff briefed on the guidelines.
Sales, social reach and branded search tracked monthly against the baseline.
The logo had to work at the smallest size first. Testing it on a cup sleeve and an Instagram profile photo before anything else is why it held up across the whole set.
Average spend rose from S$11.80 to S$13.60 and monthly revenue grew 46%. A clearer, more confident look helped the cafe sell its pastries and cold brews at a price customers felt was fair.
Short guidelines mean the second outlet, the freelancer and the printer all produce the same cafe. Without them, a brand drifts within a month. Ask your designer for a guide that a part-time staff member could follow on day one.
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