Bruhn Coffee co. brews criminal brand with Intertype Studio
The brand design for new boutique coffee shop Bruhn Coffee co. plays on founder Norman Bruhn’s distant family connections with lawbreakers back in Australia. The business partnered with strategic brand design agency Intertype Studio to craft a criminally good brand.
Playing on the ‘hustler’ mentality needed to make it in the bustling city of New York, Intertype Studio crafted a brand identity with criminal cues for Bruhn Coffee co.
The brand concept centres around living on one’s wits and doing whatever it takes to get ahead. Its ‘B’ icon reads as ‘13’ upon closer inspection, while logo markings are inspired by bullet shell casings.
Elsewhere, the coffee bag packaging design emulates a knuckle duster. For the baked goods, the in-store boxes look like stacks of cash and the copy includes gangster-themed puns.
Cold brew coffee cans have secret messages on them which is revealed under UV light, and loyalty cards use fingerprints to track and reward regular customers.
The signage that surrounds the shop encourages customers to ‘reload’ or ‘take a hit’, with hand carved illustrations highlighting the handcrafted nature of the coffee itself. The environment’s slew of hidden details for customers to detect and appreciate aims to get Bruhn Coffee co. itself detected in the crowded New York coffee scene.
