Guta Cafe Rebranding

Agency: M — N Associates
Creative Director: Duy — N
Project / Production Manager: M — Lan
Art Director: Anh Nguyễn
Designer: Anh Nguyễn, Quân Nguyễn
Producer: Quân Nguyễn, Đức Ngô
Uniform Designer: Phi Phạm, M — N Associates
Portfolio Photographer: Wing Chan
Menu Photographer: Đức Bùi
Menu Stylist: Meo Thùy Dương
Character Photographer: Hậu Lê, Cua Studio
Store Photographer: Lâm Uy Huỳnh
Brand Video Cinematographer: Lâm Uy Huỳnh
Brand Video Concept / Editor: Duy — N
Documentary: @mundaneveryday, @duy___n
Models: Trí Nguyễn, Phương Vy
Location: Vietnam
Project Type: Produced
Client: Guta Cafe Vietnam
Product Launch Location: Vietnam
Packaging Contents: Coffee
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Paper, Plastic, Aluminium, Stainless Steel
Printing Process: Digital Printing, Offset Printing, Flexography

Deriving unique Vietnamese street culture, Guta Cafe grows to be a familiar coffee brand for urban people could connect and enjoy the outdoor environment. Focusing on responsive and affordable store setup, they have grown fast, dominated Saigon and become one of the most popular convenient coffee chain for everyone in the city.

Concept
Guta is from a Vietnamese verbal slang, from “gout /gu/ ” in French and “ta” in Vietnamese, together stands for the term “our style”. Representing for Guta’s brand spirit, they proud to serve a decently good strong Vietnamese coffee. From the most common culture of Saigon, street-coffee has become a fundamental habit of not just Saigonese but also Vietnamese. Beneath the habitual culture, there’s always a “plastic chair”, small and convenient to setup anywhere to become a small coffee shop.

The graphic system was taken over by the iconic chair as center combined with all surrounding environmental elements & people behaviors. All together, creating a complete unique “style” for Guta and echos what the brand comes from.

Visualization
Here’s the usual habit for kicking start of the day for everyone who loves street coffee. They sit on a plastic chair somewhere shady and surrounding with greens, with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. After finishing their news and coffee, they started hanging out or ready for work.

The halftone printing effect on newspaper was regarded as communicating visualization for the brand and echoed different characters who sit on plastic chair around the country, from office worker to lady hawker. All together, reflecting a unique yet familiar culture of Vietnam street coffee for Guta philosophy.

Typography
Taken the chair as the center, M — N Associates has developed a custom typeface called Fonta, only for the extension of Guta chain and other child brands. After their success on rebranding and expanding their brand from several stores to nearly 60 stores around the city, Guta opens new child brands like Phở Ta (Phở noodle) or Chợ Ta (convenient local store).

Menu
We completely renovate from art direction and communication design to give the menu more appealing and reviving for in-store, website and even printed takeaway ones.

Uniform
To achieve comfort and functionality when serving outdoor in humid, sunny weather, uniform was designed with minimal basic 4D light t-shirt comprehending with shorts. In detail for branding, there’s an upside down pocket symbolized for the A-chair symbol.

Merchandise
For collecting and marketing purpose, we created a wide range of branded goods like keychain tag, case, socks, helmet, tumbler, lunchbox and even lighter.