Montville Coffee

After 15 years in business, Montville Coffee — an Australian roaster of Fairtrade and certified organic coffee — realised their logo didn’t match their purpose. The old design (below, left) showed stylised latte art in an industry saturated with similar marks, so it was important to realign the brand’s visual appearance with their future goals.

Not all brands need a symbol alongside a wordmark. Sometimes the brand name on its own is enough, particularly with a distinctive name like Montville. But with 15 years of equity in the old logo it was important not to come up with a complete departure from the existing visual appearance. The new wordmark (below, right) carried the serifs across from the old design, presenting them with heightened visual strength and professionalism, while bespoke stencilling was added to hint at the typography seen on sacks and wooden boxes used for coffee transportation.

The black and white palette retains further equity from the previous identity, while also keeping it cost-effective to ensure consistency in appearance across the full range of Montville products. While spot colours can help bring an identity to life, they add a slight risk of differentiation in print depending on the substrate or the printer used.

The letter “o” from the Montville wordmark can be used as a stand-alone element, particularly where space is at a premium, with the letter crafted in a way that subtly hints at the shape of a roasted coffee bean.

Packaging for Montville’s beans was kept purposely simple to put the emphasis on the three most important elements — the brand name, the blend name, and the Fairtrade certification. Coloured art gives customers an obvious visual clue when looking on shelves for their preferred blend.