Tripped Coffee Company is a coffee roastery based out of Ferndale, Michigan. Tripped is all about knowing and showing where the coffee beans came from and the people who are involved in growing the crop. I got to work with Tripped from the very beginning, so I was able to have a lot of fun branding the company and creating the coffee packaging & graphics.
Because I was working with Tripped Coffee Co. From the very beginning, I was able to combine everybody's ideas for the logo into something that we were all really proud of. We went through many iterations and styles, but ultimately ended up landing on the style you see in the top left image below. My idea with this style is to walk a fine line between psychedelic stylings and very clean/minimal design. The name "Tripped" references psychedelics, but also the idea of taking a trip - Something that we had in mind when deciding we want customers to have a familiarity with the people and countries that are growing the beans they are brewing with.
When it came time to design the retail coffee bag for Tripped, I had some constraints. Tripped was already in possession of several cases of generic, white coffee bags. To give the bag a more unique look, I decided I wanted to have the top of the bag folded down so the package had a rectangular look. To keep the top folded down, we needed something to hold it there. We came up with the strap label that goes from the front of the bag, over the top, and down the back. On the strap label is all of the information relating to the coffee inside that particular bag. This design makes it so any bag can hold any coffee and reduces potential waste of packaging.
Once the retail bags of coffee were designed and on some store shelves, Tripped started to upsell grocery stores with cans of cold brew coffee. I created a die-cut label to help the cans shine on the shelf.
After creating the logo for Tripped and working on their branding, I created a font based on the type in the logo. In line with the design concept of the logo, I created an art neuveau-style font that can very quickly be tweaked for a psychedelic look.
When Tripped was setting their core values as a company, they chose one of them to be "Are You Kind?". As a company, they are not interested in working with people who cannot show kindness. They phrased the core value this way because The Grateful Dead has a song called Uncle John's Band, where Jerry Garcia asks "Are You Kind?". When I heard this was going to be a core value for the company, I immediately thought it could be used in a guerrilla marketing campaign. We created stickers and merch using a design I made with the idea that the question "Are You Kind?" would intrigue people to find about more about the company.
One thing Tripped was really interested in was coffee subscriptions. Where a customer can sign up online to pay monthly and have fresh coffee beans shipped to their house every month. For this, I created a website where customers can quickly and easily see the coffees Tripped roasts and decide which ones they want to try in their subscription.
Once Tripped started getting onto store shelves, I created a brand guide for them to give to anybody interested in using their branding. This details how to use the logo, the fonts, what to do and what not to do.
The first run of Tripped merch was super fun to work on. Tripped wanted high-end items with their branding on them, so I picked out some quality, soft, durable shirts, hoodies, and hats. We got them printed in Detroit and everything turned out great!
