One of Australia’s largest café franchises, The Coffee Club, has refreshed its brand identity, working with Sydney-based studio Accompany. The new look packaging features an updated colour palette and logo, featured across multiple touch points in store and online.
Owned by Minor DKL Food Group, The Coffee Club first launched in Brisbane in 1989 and has more than 400 stores around the world.
Accompany developed a new brand identity, featuring a warm colour palette and illustrations coupled with coffee bean photography. Contemporary typefaces were also included to add to the “upbeat tone”, all of which is now incorporated into The Coffee Club menu, operations and services, such as its technology, product packaging and in-store design.
Accompany owner and creative director Linda Jukic told PKN the illustrations were inspired by the brand values The Coffee Club is known for – human, optimistic and caring qualities – with an aim to produce a creative solution that would in a bigger way, “shake-up” the category.
“We felt charming image-making in which combined photography and hand-generated illustrations would be a style that would express these brand qualities and bring a smile to the mind of customers,” said Jukic.
“Also bringing to life the propositions of the contents of the packaging. e.g. a toucan on a coffee bean branch to represent their Colombian Single Origin bean varietal, or a relaxed guy walking a bean to capture the ease and enjoyment of a takeaway coffee.”
“At the heart of the work is a bold new logo design built to grab attention, personify connection and is one that the staff – on the front-line of The Coffee Club’s standout service – can wear with pride.”
The updated colour palette defines the new era of the business, Jukic told PKN, and the “key to realising packaging touchpoints was injecting new colours to achieve stand-out in store and feeling (and looking) good in the hand of customers”.
“We also worked with The Coffee Club team and with their manufacturers to ensure quality reproduction of the designs which exist in a very different output space to their previous designs,” she said.
“Along with the brand change, The Coffee Club has also partnered with Closed Loop to be part of their Simply Cups recycling program. This has been a collaborative partnership, which also is highly relevant as our brand looks to be more sustainable and reduce our environmental impact.”
The new brand launch was scheduled for March, however due to COVID-19, it has been adjusted and “a softer brand renewal is underway”.
“Although our original launch plans were waylaid by the pandemic, we are incredibly proud of our new brand identity and the first steps taken in our journey toward becoming the most customer connected café experience,” said Minor DKL Food Group chief brand officer Megan Magill.
“We are looking forward to extending this into a fully integrated renewal that will reposition The Coffee Club as ‘Your Happy Place.’”
