Tsuyu Coffee
Tsuyu is a new way of experiencing the everyday product of coffee. Focusing on intimate spaces and a spatial experience that forces removal from the outside world, Tsuyu aims to create a personal connection between a person and their experience with coffee. The project includes complete brand identity, spatial design, motion, promotional pieces, and quarterly publication designs.
The project started with two guiding questions:
Question 1: Can we redefine how people interact with a simple, everyday product like coffee?
Question 2: Do people care about coffee as an experience in the same way they might care about eating a $200 meal at a high-end restaurant?
Deliverables:
Brand Guide & Concept
Coffee Guide
Spatial Design
The visual language of Tsuyu developed from images of Japanese tea ceremonies, coffee beans, intense croppings, and high contrast textures.
Some keywords that influenced this conceptual thinking: Ritual, Experience, Tradition, Preference, Roast, Note, Global, Cultural, Ethical
Audience / Personas
Obviously we want everyone to love quality coffee and have their personal favorites. However, the audience will most likely be geared towards young, working, social people who already have a general interest in coffee.
Let’s get more specific: Age 26. College educated. Socially conscious. Pretty social. Often meets friends for drinks. Enjoys travel. Relatively busy lifestyle.
What do they do: Works at an environmental design agency in San Francisco. Demanding job, but has been there since graduation and has some freedom with time off / hours.
Why would they come to Tsuyu: Avid coffee drinker. Has coffee in the morning before work, sometimes in the afternoon, but is interested in finding out more about the coffee experience itself.
Obviously we want everyone to love quality coffee and have their personal favorites. However, the audience will most likely be geared towards young, working, social people who already have a general interest in coffee.
Let’s get more specific: Age 26. College educated. Socially conscious. Pretty social. Often meets friends for drinks. Enjoys travel. Relatively busy lifestyle.
What do they do: Works at an environmental design agency in San Francisco. Demanding job, but has been there since graduation and has some freedom with time off / hours.
Why would they come to Tsuyu: Avid coffee drinker. Has coffee in the morning before work, sometimes in the afternoon, but is interested in finding out more about the coffee experience itself.
Just like coffee, the layout of this book is focused around the need to breathe, expand, and condense. The first 30 seconds of a pour-over cup of coffee are spent breathing. The ground beans start to interact with the heat and steam from the water, expanding and condensing. This process allows the hidden notes to be discovered on the first sip. The quarterly follows this same system. Both image size and text space breathe to different sizes on the grid.
For those wanting to experience Tsuyu at home, we offer a Coffee Quarterly: A quarterly magazine that also includes a foldable brew guide. The reverse side features a limited edition design. Once done with the guide, it can be flipped and used as a poster. Muted brand colors change based on the season, but always allow for the imagery and coffee to remain the focus. Textured papers create a refined, handcrafted feeling that people will want to hold on to instead of discarding once done.
Tsuyu Coffee is designed to live in the city without the city feeling. With this, the spatial design is intended to feel very intimate and separated from the exterior. The design takes inspiration from paper filters, origami coffee drippers, and minimalist architecture.
The experiential space allows for a personal experience between person and coffee, only allowing 1-2 people at a time. The shop mirrors the style of the experiential building, while also providing a marketplace to buy beans, the quarterly, or Tsuyu branded products.
