Kahwe Roastery

Brand Refresh | Brand Identity Extension | Packaging Design

Brand & packaging design for people who care about people, coffee, and the planet. Following the pandemic and a period of sustainable and self-reflective growth, Kahwe Roastery was ready to further extend and amplify its brand identity by commissioning Turipamwe to design and develop a secondary logo mark and a range of newly customised packaging that reflected the brand’s present and future-focused trajectory. “Coffee represents the entire world in a cup – we work it with love – cherishing the coffee producers’ hard work and input. We enjoy the fruit of our labour – a cup of coffee, with all our hearts.”

Kahwe Roastery is a Tampere-based small-scale coffee roastery that offers guilt-free, locally produced high-quality coffee for conscious coffee drinkers. Unlike major coffee manufacturers, KAHWE knows exactly where our coffee comes from. They ensure that the coffee farmer can make a decent living by growing coffee. Coffee is the perfect companion whether you’re catching up with a friend, having a solo chill session, or enjoying a break from work.

Kahwe Roastery is for everyone interested in coffee. The approach to everything we do is relaxed, honest, open and down to earth. “Our aim is to conduct our business as ethically and transparently as possible. It is of utmost importance to us that the coffee farmers get compensated fairly for the work they do. Our intention is to develop relationships based on trust and mutual understanding, focusing on sustainability. We shape the world through our actions and behavior as individuals and the scale only gets bigger for companies. ”KAHWE Roastery’s intention is to act humanely, taking the environment and all living beings into consideration. In the end, we are all one.

Design Challenge & Opportunity

Kahwe had an established visual identity making use of its iconic red brick logo and minimally striking white coffee bags. Additionally, updating packing is a considerable investment for any company. The technical and cost-effective constraints offered us a creative challenge. 

Our aim was to honour this creative collaboration in a manner that highlights Kahwe’s origins and solves its challenge for affordable, sustainable packaging which the KAHWE team can easily reproduce independently regardless of the coffee roast that may fill each bag. Beyond the technical requirements, this project was also incredibly soulful for us. We wanted to honour the fun-loving and groovy manner in which Kahwe presented its personality and underpinned the tone of our collaboration. 

The intention was to reflect a brand identity that’s professional but does not take itself too seriously.  We mixed careful professionalism, playfulness and a beginner’s mind as our creative strategy and aesthetic.

Our design solution assisted Kahwe in producing a single customised coffee bag while allowing them to independently update and print labels based on seasonal and roasting profiles, which are never the same. Their new secondary logo mark combines K and heart. This design is so resolved that it seems to have been that way since the beginning.

The extended colour is based on KAHWE’s signature red brick colour. We developed a new pallet based on coffee-tasting profiles inciting a flavour response for customers based on colour psychology.

Lively illustrations penned by Namibian artist Jero AKA Petrus Amuthenu were conceptualised during a shared coffee tasting. Our brief to him was to create illustrations that evoke present-moment experiences when savouring coffee. Nuanced details in the artwork invite the viewer to take another look and draw their own conclusion.

Finally, the Kahwe coffee bags are meticulously produced by Holden Pak, a flexible packaging supplier, specialising in fully customizable, sustainable and ethically produced coffee packaging. 

Kahwe’s Helsinki Coffee Festival award-winning beans available via www.kahwe.fi