PORTFOLIO
2020 Blend
OVERVIEW
Before the year 2020 became a pandemic lockdown nightmare—good coffee was in full swing.
Collaborating with Portland-based artist, Isaiah Pottle, we created this coffee brand before the pandemic.
Mike Haebler and Stephany Davila-Hermeling created an incredibly balanced coffee that was a complete hit in taste tests.
My Contribution
Branding
Art Direction
Launch Strategy
Copywriting
User research Product design
The Team
Mike Haebler, Product Dev
Isaiah Pottle, Art
Stephany Davila-Hermeling, Manager
The Process
December 2019. When you work in coffee, you try different coffees literally every day. Eventually, you develop a pulse for what is tasting fresh and what’s popular with roasters. When the team came up with a new blend, it just had this flavor of being current for what’s going on in coffee. It was like hearing a song for the first time and it sounds new and fresh. 2020 Blend was born.
Positioning
Intrigue. Coffee bags everywhere were looking the same. Minimal, featuring elevation, location, etc. With a generic paragraph on the back. 2020 Blend provided transparency on the ethical sourcing, but the unexpected art took front and center. Aren’t you a bit curious how 2020 Blend tastes? Intrigue.
Art
Working with Isaiah Pottle, we aimed to convey twinkling optimism for the future, a person emerging from the purple fog of the past, while gazing at the future with perfect vision. Essentially, to create a person seeing clarity at the threshold of past and future (aka the present.)
All you had to do was take a sip, let the steam curl up around you, and gaze into the future.
Lesson’s Learned
Sometimes you name your product after a year, then that year turns out to be a global systems meltdown.
In all sincerity, I learned a lot working with artist Isaiah Pottle. When working with visual thinkers, communicate visually. Whether you have to tell a story, find common pop culture references, or show examples. You might even find a song or tell a story that captures the feel.
Then, once you can communicate the idea back and forth without much correction of each other—get out of the way and let the artist do what an artist does!
Good product art catches more eyes than you’d ever guess. Pay for good artists.
Outcome
It’s incredible what art/branding can do to make something stick in the mind. Clients kept requesting 2020 Blend by name—which, if you haven’t worked in the world of coffee or tea—is a huge deal. Most people just say, “I like this coffee I had this week. Can’t remember what it was, but it was good.” 2020 Blend did not have this problem. We ended up making several posters of the artwork for display. That’s a micro-brand success.