Struśkawka Branding
Struśkawka is a small trendy, hipster coffee shop in Gdansk Poland. It is an urban independent café serving high-end sustainable coffee with an offbeat, arty vibe.
I was approached by Andrzej the proprietor, to design a logo and guide the branding for his new start up. As the menu was to host only the highest quality products which would be homemade, local and sustainable, the logo needed to reflect the nature elements being considered and nod toward the considerations from the source of the coffee.
The name Struśkawka is a direct link between Andrzej's name and his passion for coffee. Andrzej's surname is Struś (translates to Ostrich). Years prior to setting up a business in the realm of dreams many years ago, he combined his animal name with coffee as the Kawka part of the name is a cute way of saying small black coffee. However, he did not want it to be a banal combination with the use of, for example, the ubiquitous coffee bean. His vision was that an image of a coffee a plant, with coffee cherries and flowers would perfectly connect to the have highest quality of speciality coffee emphasizing the fact that coffee is a fruit and could have various flavours and aromas. Using the plant in the design is also nodded towards all items on the menu being natural and would tick all the boxes of his vision for what the logo should say visually.
I designed the main logo using hand drawn coffee leaves, flowers and cherries which I positioned to make the image of an ostrich. The square signage needed a visible name so I made a seperate logo splitting the Struś and Kawka up as the word as a whole would be lost in a square.
Linking the logo to the interior Andrzej and I discussed items like light fittings to be black and linear to match the logo. A slightly industrial feel to match into the red brick surroundings without steering away from the nature aesthetics. We discussed having a neon sign on the wall viewable from outside to highlight the linear script in the Struśkawka name.
I thoroughly enjoyed this project even with the challenge of distance and language. I cannot wait to see it in person.