Doku Coffee Co.

Intro

Brand + Website

My friend approached me wanting to turn his hobby of home-roasting specialty coffee into a full-fledged business. Our shared interest in coffee and community brought us together to establish Doku Coffee Co. While my partner Zach focuses on roasting, shipping, and business development, I focus on branding, packaging design, website maintenance, and photography.

Ongoing

Personal Business

Project Scope

We needed to establish our brand through a strong logo, memorable packaging design, and clean website design for online orders. The name Doku comes from merging our dogs’ names. Duke + Hoku = Doku.  Although our pups inspired the name, we wanted to avoid cheesy, dog-forward branding. Since we were selling specialty coffee, we aimed to develop a premium brand with a local vibe.

Research

Coffee companies around the world have a variety of aesthetics, which made it easy to collect innovative ideas. From packaging design to logos, it was exciting to discover new coffee brands and their products.

Ideation

As I began sketching logo ideas, I drew initial cliche designs and coffee motifs, giving way to unique solutions. I explored ideas surrounding coffee beans, landscape, latte art, pourover, coffee cherries, and natural elements.

Design

Out of all my ideas, I was drawn to a particular one that used a natural element from our community - an oak leaf. I developed a handful of iterations of this leaf and started working with various fonts and color palettes. During this process, I worked closely with my partner to ensure we were on the right track.

Solution

Iconography

I used the form of an oak leaf, but styled it after a Japanese style stamp known as “Hanko.”  This symmetrical seal was intended to reflect a premium and locally made product.

Typography

The Seasons was the font choice for the main lettering of “Doku.” The asymmetrical weight of the letter “O” and curvature in “K” added character to the logo when paired with the symmetrical iconography. The secondary font uses Avenir in all caps, acting as a strong foundation for “Doku” to rest on.

Color Palette

Wanting to stand out from well-known coffee brands, we opted for a royal blue color palette, accented by light blues, creams, and a neutral tan. We wanted our color story to be vibrant and welcoming, with a premium touch.

Packaging

Labels

Creating eye-catching packaging that didn’t break the bank for our small company was critical. We opted to use a plain white bag with a custom die-cut sticker for our labels. Initially, we kept the design as simple as possible. As we continued our roasting journey, we quickly learned that presenting as much information as possible is key for specialty coffee roasters.

Revision

The revision in the bottom right corner now displays specific information about each coffee’s origin, farmer, and processing method, as well as a greater roast level gradient.

This helps the customer understand differences between roasts while presenting a clean and fresh aesthetic.

Website

I built our site using Shopify’s website tools. This allowed me to create a clean and consistent online sales tool for our company. The images used are a combination of my own photography and stock imagery, and I wrote all the copy on the site.

For us, this website is a constant work in progress with the vision of developing a blog section where we can help our audience learn more about specialty coffee and coffee basics.

Key Takeaways

  • After designing for various companies over the years, I was beginning to feel a disconnect between my passion for creative outlets and my daily work. As I began to work on Doku, I felt a surge of excitement and wonder since I was setting my own parameters and designing for something I was passionate about. Overall, I discovered how reinvigorating it is to work design into my personal life.

  • When a concept clicks, don’t waste time by trying to force out other half-baked ideas. Trust your instincts and spend your time refining and building upon that one idea you simply can’t shake!

  • There are always opportunities for improvement. It’s helpful to take a step back from my projects to see them with fresh eyes. In this case, Doku Coffee Co. is a brand dear to my heart, and I firmly believe it should constantly evolve and improve over time.