Family (and friends) designs brand positioning and packaging for new Cafédirect coffee range

The British branding and packaging design specialist has continued its long-standing partnership with Cafédirect, the UK’s founding Fairtrade coffee brand. In designing the identity of its new roast and ground coffee range named ‘Be The Change’, the agency hoped to change the perception of blended coffee.

With the B Corp coffee company continuing its 32-year long mission of improving the world of coffee across Latin America, Asia and Africa, Family (and Friends)’s work had to reflect Cafédirect’s commitment. The ‘Be the Change Blends’ aim to help solve some of the industry’s biggest issues, with a large proportion of the proceeds going towards funding female leadership programmes, farmer-led carbon offsetting initiatives and support for youth agribusiness projects.

Derek Johnston, co-founder and strategy lead at Family (and friends), says, “Cafédirect is taking an incredibly significant step to bring to life the impact they have on improving the livelihoods of coffee growers, something which is largely airbrushed in the category.  This range of blends reflects and celebrates the great efforts they’re making, and will continue to make, for the farmers and their families.”

In designing the new range, Family (and Friends) utilised bold, illustrative styling. The agency extended Cafédirect’s visual codes featuring their upwardly projecting brand logo and cut-through device. In order to signal a short-form way of demonstrating the connection between bean farmer and drinker benefits, an ‘infinitely better’ icon was developed. It will feature on all packaging going forward. The packaging designs are specifically targeted towards Gen-Z drinkers, with issues of sustainability and convenience used to sway this younger audience.

Malek Mokrani, senior marketing manager at Cafédirect, adds, “We needed a complete design refresh of our Blends range to further highlight our coffee’s incredible quality, which also engages consumers in Cafédirect’s purpose and impact story. We are delighted with where we have landed in both proposition and design.”