Graphic design, branding, & front-end Web design

Lever Coffee

With a small team, I created the branding both online and in store at the start-up phase of Lever Coffee. We worked through financial struggles, and changes in location for both website and building to build a beautiful craft coffee brand that would fit it's community and customers.

Challenges

Standing Out in a Crowded Market
‍Creating a brand that genuinely stands out required deep market research and a clear understanding of our target audience.

Defining a Unique Brand Identity
Beyond just selling coffee, what would be the purpose of our shop? We would build our brand on craft, quality, sustainability, and community.

Cultivating Customer Loyalty
Customer retention is vital to long term success. We added on a loyalty program customers would actually enjoy to our POS.

Finding a Web Platform to Fit our Team
Lever.com went through many phases and trials on a few platforms, like Shopify. We ultimately settled on Wordpress and plugins. Our small team found it easy to manage and collaborate on.

Creating the Logo
‍The logo mark and name were inspired by the unique Pull machines that would be used in the cafe. They asked me to illustrate the lever from the machine as the logo mark and use it as the "L" in the logo type. I began with a very intricate drawing of the lever, and then simplified into a vector. The logo above is what was used for the first year or two of starting up the business.

I handed off the files to another designer on our team to further simplify the logo mark as I worked on the website. I love that we were able to collaborate on the branding and arrive at a look and feel that reflects the beautiful interior design of the coffee house itself.