Platinum A' Design Award Winner 2022
Akihito Shimizu's branding system operates as a sophisticated visual dialectic between industrial minimalism and organic agricultural narrative, encoding values of transparency, provenance, and mindful consumption within its material and compositional choices. The dominant matte black palette carries associations of premium positioning, sophistication, and the transformative darkness of the roasting process itself, while simultaneously functioning as a neutral ground that amplifies the chromatic significance of the photographic origin imagery. This strategic deployment of restraint followed by revelation mirrors the coffee experience itself: the anticipation of preparation yielding to the complexity of the cup. The hand-lettered script typography invokes centuries of coffee house tradition and artisanal craft, its flowing connected forms suggesting the continuous chain from farmer to roaster to consumer, while the silver metallic finish elevates these humble letterforms toward precious metal associations of value and care. The glass canister choice carries symbolic weight, suggesting transparency of sourcing and quality, allowing the consumer to witness the product itself while the photographic wrapper provides context for those beans' journey. The collage imagery functions as documentary testimony, the verdant greens symbolizing growth and vitality, the deep reds of ripe cherries encoding both passion and the precise moment of harvest readiness, the human presence affirming ethical relationship with producing communities. The geometric austerity of the box form creates a shrine-like presentation context, transforming the quotidian act of coffee purchase into ritualized gift exchange, while the diagonal compositional arrangement generates dynamic energy suggesting movement and flow appropriate to stimulant culture. This visual system successfully encodes specialty coffee's core values: connection to origin, appreciation of craft, and the elevation of daily consumption into mindful practice.
The curvilinear logo design with the theme of aroma drifting from the environment expresses a natural and high quality coffee experience. The individual labels are designed with a collage of local photographs that connect the producer's face with the place of origin, environment and consumers, and convey the individuality and charm of the unique coffee produced in each region.