Project Snippet - Apotheos Coffee Bag

About a year ago I wrote about the early design explorations for Apotheos Roastery’s cold brew coffee cans. I’ve recently published the full case study as well showcasing the final can designs, and some temporary bags that Apotheos was using at the time the photos were taken. Well… it turns out the bags I designed were never meant to be, and they employed another designer to revisit the bags and print them. Which is ok! It happens, I understand. Still a little sad about it but I get it.

So! To honor those bag designs that never got to see the light of day, I want to showcase them in their full glory here in a Project Snippet, and also some of the earlier explorations that lead to the final designs.

This first set of unused designs explores a very modern, clean and maximalist approach to the bags. The oversized golden droplet draws the eye regardless of being on a light or dark background. Ideally the dark bag would have been a dark roast, the light bag would be the light roasts, and a third undetermined color (probably a light purple) would’ve been the medium roast.

This second set of unused designs was inspired by vintage marbled end papers that you’d typically find in old books. The idea was that each bag’s marbled pattern (depending on the kind of roast, the name of the roast, and the tasting notes) would change in form and color to reflect the qualities of the coffee beans inside. You’ll note that the sides of the bags here are all different. I was playing with different typographic layouts, inspired by old book spines, and was undecided on what layout would work best to harken back to the point of inspiration and still ribbonize well across different bags. You’ll see in the next set that the book spine idea made its way to the final coffee bag designs, despite the end paper idea being a little too complicated to bring to life.

The final and approved (but not produced :( ) bags feature some design choices from the previous two iterations. The lighter flood of cream on the face and back of the bag allow the logo and brand to take center stage, while an accent color that designates the SKU is used on sparingly on these planes. That accent floods the sides of the bag, revisiting in the book spine motif from the last direction. A custom icon was also designed for each SKU, representative of the products’ name.

Project Snippet — Believe in Beer Can Design

At VIgor, we work with Bottleshare, the craft beer industry’s first emergency fund-focused nonprofit. Bottleshare raises funds for members of the craft beer community facing financial hardship by collaborating with breweries to create special release beers, the sales of which go into their grant program. In April of 2020, Bottleshare was presented with the huge opportunity to partner with the Brewers Association and created the ‘Believe in Beer’ Relief Fund — a fund made specifically to support breweries and state brewers guilds impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. With sponsorship secured and the beer under works by the talented brewmasters at Mobcraft, we were tasked to create a can design that stood out on the shelves and brought attention to the cause.

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For my proposed direction, I sought to cut through the visual noise found on the craft beer shelf and get straight to the heart of the matter. Developing the Believe In Beer visual identity further, I designed a clean white can that put the cause front and center. The front of the can was designed on a grid to accomodate any future Believe in Beer releases, their breweries, tasting notes and styles, while maintaining visual consistency. On the back of the can, I wrote a message of hope for the viewer, hoping to pull at their heartstrings and encourage them to learn more about the fund and Bottleshare in general.