Northline Roasters
Disciplines
Branding
Industry
Coffee shop
Overview
Northline Roasters is a specialty coffee roastery with its own café. We developed the positioning, the visual identity and the brand guidelines, and applied them to everything a customer meets, from the bag on the shelf to the sign outside.
Challenge
Specialty coffee brands tend to talk to each other. The language is about origin, altitude and processing, and the design is busy with illustration and detail. That speaks to enthusiasts, but most people buy coffee for a simpler reason: the moment it gives them.
Northline roasts with the same care as its competitors. It needed a brand that says what the coffee is for, not only where it comes from. And because it's both a roastery and a café, the identity had to work on a bag, on a cup and in a room.
Approach
We built the positioning on one idea: coffee as a pause. The tagline puts it plainly: "Coffee designed for moments of presence."
The mark comes from the name. An N carries a north star above it and rests on a fine line: a point to steer by and a steady horizon. The wordmark is set in widely spaced serif capitals, which gives it an unhurried feel. Headlines use Minion Pro and body text uses Proxima Nova.
The palette has six tones, from Soft Linen to Deep Roast, all drawn from coffee and natural materials. There is no bright accent. Contrast comes from light against dark. Photography uses daylight, hands and materials, and people in conversation.
We applied the system to packaging labels, hang tags, cups, carrier bags, menus and signage, and documented it in brand guidelines covering logo, colour, typography and use.
Outcome
A calm identity in a loud category. Northline stands out by being quieter than the brands around it, and the same tone carries from the bag to the cup to the café.
As a concept project, Northline Roasters has no sales figures to report. What it shows is how we handle a consumer brand: decide what the product is for, then let every detail say it.
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