Cultivate is a cafe and tap room in Ypsilanti, MI. I began working with them in 2020 and was in charge of their website, social media, and all print needs. I managed a graphics rebrand to brighten the look of Cultivate up and make it feel more inclusive to everyone.
When I began working with Cultivate Coffee & Tap House, they were already established as a brand, but the owners were interested in experimenting with the logo for merch & events. I was able to have a lot of fun making different variations of the logo and putting them on merch and promotional materials.
Cultivate was sold to new owners during the pandemic and the new owners wanted Cultivate to have much more color in their branding. When it came time to inject a pop of color into the coffee packaging, I created a hang tag system. I gave each coffee-growing region a color palette and the tag for each coffee Cultivate roasted would have a freeform gradient background using the colors I assigned to that region. Against the pitch black coffee bag, these tags really popped and ended up looking great on the shelf.
Cultivate purchased a canning machine during the pandemic and began selling beer, cider, cold brew, and cocktails that they canned in-house. I created a general label for them with icons relating to beer, coffee, cider. The label included space on the side for employees to write details about the contents of the cans.
I worked with Cultivate to begin reaching out to local charities, community gardens, and groups that aligned with Cultivate's values for potential partnerships. This eventually turned into 'Grow Ypsi', a program held by Cultivate where every month, they would partner with a local charity and announce which food or drink items a customer could order to give a part of the sale to that month's partner.
There is a large outdoor space next to Cultivate that is used for food popups, events, parties, etc. For special public events, I would create graphics for promotion and they would be posted on social media.
Most nights, Cultivate would stay open late and offer specials on drinks or food after a certain time. I created marketing materials for these specials and called it 'Late Night Cultivate'.
Cultivate has MANY fans in the Ypsilanti, MI area and customers began asking for merchandise so they could represent their favorite hang out spot. I designed a whole line of Cultivate merch items and the crowd favorites were produced and sold in the cafe. I also designed the glassware that was used and sold at Cultivate.
Cultivate has a membership program where customers that frequent the cafe can pay a flat price to purchase a yearly membership that gives them discounts, free coffees, special merchandise, etc. I designed the look of the membership and created the plastic membership cards as well as merchandise for members.
