Likewise, Portland also offers a very unique culture to draw inspiration from. “Keep Portland Weird,” sticker bombing every street sign, the gritty underbelly of Portland punks; we wanted to take the best of Portland’s icons and find a way to connect it to our Chinese influence, creating one unique design language.
Color is important to help connect the brand to Chinese culture. Reds and blue are easy ways to identify Chinese brands and we wanted to maintain that. Similarly, Chinese characters and calligraphy were infused into English letters. We used icons that have meaning but also contain subtle coffee cues, like coffee cups or coffee plant leaves.
We also used a comic-book art style of illustration to help bring our key visuals to life, incorporating subtle halftones to mimic the art of comics and screenprinting. Fun fact: screen printing actually originated in China as a way to transfer designs onto fabrics.
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