From Smooshed Sagebrush to Scribbles

Coffee Roaster Branding and Logo Design

We love Nevada. We love watching it change and grow. And that is why we are so excited to share that we are now working with the first ever coffee roaster in Elko, Collective Coffee.

Collective Coffee is made up of a team people who believe that coffee creates community, and community creates culture. So, of course we are excited to be on this project, because this means that Mabble gets to play a small part in that vision coming to life. We get to help create culture – and you know we get all the feels when it comes to that sort of thing.

Additional bonus: we get to work with “Elko People” – which if any of them are reading this then they know they are a special breed of people… holla back now!

Collective Coffee needed a look that was bold, yet personable and that communicated community. They wanted something uniquely different than anything else that already existed in Elko. AND we felt it should be set apart from the zillion and a half other coffee related companies. This took a moment for us to wrap our heads around.

Our first attempt included trying to incorporate a Mastodon as a mascot. Super BA in theory, since mastodon bones were found in a school teacher’s back yard in the Elko area. But it also took us a little off track. It looked way too… metal.

Our second attempt included rummaging around in sagebrush and trying to scan pieces of it so see what kind of cool art we might be able to make using a home printer scanner… that turned out just like it sounds – interesting thought, not so interesting art – we were left with smooshed sagebrush.

So after spending several hours just trying to get something to work and facing the reality that we probably needed to go back to the drawing board, Liz sat back at her computer and just started scribbling on her screen. Scribbling – yes, with just a finger on a mouse pad – nothing special. Somehow, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, a vision was born in this moment. So now you know, we’ve pulled back the curtain, and sometimes we just make happy accidents that turn out to be actually kinda great.

From there, we found the momentum to create a branding strategy that would help tell the story of Collective Coffee. This part was a blast, mostly because the CCR team reminded us how much we love our job by just being utterly stoked on the branding process. Also, these guys really know how to run with a brand after receiving a branding guide. Check out their Instagram and Facebook to see what they are up to.