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Just like Blue Bottle, many coffee brands use coher-
ent color for their brand logo, to cafe design and coffee
merchandise. Color sets the mood for brand expression,
and the emphasis on color through the whole design in-
creases customers’ brand awareness. However, among all,
the use of color in coffee packaging overrides others.
According to recent research in AIMI Journal, the color
of packaging makes a significant contribution to altering
potential customers’ buying desires and preferences. Most
of the time, we get snap judgments about a coffee brand
based on the color of the packaging. Colors are like the
representative of coffee brands, especially specialty coffee
brands who want to stand out in the market. They do not
need powerpoint presentations or pages of briefings to
tell the consumers what the brand is, what is the core
concept behind it. The color itself can already tell the
whole story.
Color as Brand Representative
Reesaw design studio is among those who believe
in the power of color in the design. Established in 2015,
Reesaw is a cutting-edge creative design agency focusing
on new consumption areas. The studio strives to provide
innovative and differentiated design solutions for brands.
Their customers include some of well-known food and
beverage brands, such as Colin Coffee and FreshHema.
Colors play an important role in all their packaging design.
If you take a glimpse of their official website, you might
even be overwhelmed by the saturated playful colors.
“The founder and I are both very clear about the
purpose and concept of our design agency. As most of
our creative design targets young people, we believe that
color expression plays an extremely essential role in our
design. We want to be imaginative and bold in color. In
applying colors, we always try to find a unique expression
according to the brand’s positioning. But at the same time,
we also continue to calibrate the accuracy of color ex-
pression for a brand until we find the right color to
represent it.” Yin Songhua, the art director of Reesaw told
CTI in the interview.
One of Reesaw’s most recent projects for the coffee
brand RED SEED CAFE is a good demonstration of its
color philosophy in creative design. RED SEED CAFE was
founded in Yangzhou, China. The founder was attracted
by the vibrant red color of coffee berries during his glob-
al travels to explore the coffee universe and therefore
named his own coffee brand “Red Seed”. Needless to say,
red is the primary color tone for the whole brand design.
The red dots spread from the coffee shop to their paper
bag. Some of the designs even get bolder with the color,
such as the take-out paper cup and the cup carrier tray,
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which are immersed in red. At first glance, the bright red
will give you a visual shock. It leaves a strong first im-
pression in consumers’ minds and immediately helps them
understand the brand’s concept.
Yin explained the idea of using the color red: “Our
color logic is straightforward for RED SEED CAFE. We
helped our client come up with the brand name. When
we named it, we hoped to return to the original state of
coffee fruit — red. The extension of the use of red as an
embellishment helps present the sense of quality brought
by the brand.”
While sometimes one simple color has the power
to assist in establishing a coffee brand, other times, a mix
of color palettes will be the key to making the specialty
coffee out of sight. With the rise of online shopping,
many specialty coffee brands abandon the traditional
brick-and-mortar way and embrace virtual channels to
sell their coffee.
In fact, specialty instant coffee is changing the game
in China’s coffee market. Mintel Food and Drink found As more and more specialty coffee brands enter the
out that 58% of Chinese consumers drank instant coffee game, differentiation is vital for brands in this market.
at least once a week, while 26% consumed it at least once An outstanding colorful packaging becomes a panacea to
a day in 2018. As the competition becomes fiercer in the win the heart of the younger consumers, who are the main
field, the quality and standard for specialty instant cof- force of online consumption.
fee are growing. Consumers cannot be satisfied by the Take another one of Reesaw’s designs for the on-
classic Nestlé instant coffee anymore. They are looking line-only Chinese coffee brand David Choice as an exam-
for something with a fresher coffee taste. During the ple. Apart from the signature “V” icon, the packaging
Chinese Double 11 online e-commerce shopping festival color is definitely the other linchpin to help the brand
in 2020, Saturnbird — one of China’s most famous spe- stand out from the crowd in China’s competitive online
cialty coffee brands — took first place in the instant retail channel. Orange with blue, green, and purple, Da-
coffee category on China’s biggest e-commerce platform vid’s Choice packaging chooses a series of highly saturat-
Tmall. This was the first time Nestlé had been beaten in ed contrasting colors. The bold contrasting colors make
more than 30 years. the products more eye-catching for young consumers.
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