ABA Coffee Factory — Coffee Roasting Studio

ABA Coffee Factory — Coffee Roasting Studio

Development of the brand positioning, corporate identity, and packaging redesign

ABA Coffee Factory is a unique coffee roasting studio. Aside from selling coffee beans and equipment, the company also pays great attention to the promotion of coffee culture: they consult, train, hold cuppings. The brand’s story is based on the personal history of its founder, the roastmaster Murov Akhmedov. To stand out in the overcrowded specialty coffee market, the company has decided to renovate its brand identity. We conducted large-scale research, formulated positioning, and developed a new corporate identity and a new design for two packaging lines. Here, we will tell about our work on espresso blends, and in the next article, you can read about the packaging for filter coffee.

The Four Elements line includes four espresso blends: Fuego (fire), Tierra (earth), Viento (air), Agua (water), and a special blend called The Fifth Element. The metaphor of alchemy forming the basis for the rebranding of this line arises at the junction of the four elements theme, the brand’s mission, its image and positioning.

ABA Coffee Factory is a unique coffee roasting studio located in Novosibirsk. The company works with wholesale and private clients throughout the country, most closely with the regions of Siberia and the Far East. Aside from selling coffee beans and equipment, the brand’s team also pays great attention to the promotion of coffee culture: they consult, train, hold cuppings. The brand’s story is based on the personal history of its founder, Murov Akhmedov. Murov is one of the founders of the Traveler’s Coffee chain, a roastmaster, a member of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), a certified taste judge of the Russian Barista Championship.

Today, the specialty coffee market is overcrowded. To become successful in such circumstances, one needs to fulfill two conditions: to understand exactly, how this product differs from the rest; and to convey this difference in its packaging. Therefore, the ABA Coffee Factory team decided to do a large-scale rebranding despite their confident top positions — if the top position is not being confirmed constantly, it can be easily lost.

The lovemedo team conducted large-scale research for the brand, formulated positioning, and developed a new corporate identity for the brand and a new design for two packaging lines. Here, we will tell about our work on espresso blends, and in the next article, you can read about the packaging for filter coffee.

The Four Elements line includes four espresso blends: Fuego (fire), Tierra (earth), Viento (air), Agua (water), and a special blend called The Fifth Element. The metaphor forming the basis for the rebranding arises at the junction of the four elements theme, the brand’s mission, its image and positioning.

The brand’s mission is to understand and explain coffee: “We strive to delve into all aspects of creation and preparation. We look for the best varieties, help farmers grow crops, dry them, roast them carefully, and select a perfect packaging to preserve all the flavor nuances. We transform theoretical knowledge into practice, and with the help of practice, we supplement knowledge.” Positioning: Coffee Master. Brand image: Wise Man, Wizard, Explorer.

Coffee craft combines scientific approach (knowledge, technologies, innovations, tests) with special coffee magic, just as Medieval alchemy used to combine science with magic.

The best roasters are those who know how to decompose any substance into its components; they know what to blend and how to process it to get the desired effect. While making coffee, a barista looks like an alchemist: they also go through their beakers, grind ingredients, boil and evaporate liquids, obtain concentrates and extracts. Then they mix all the ingredients to create a special elixir. It’s science, but at the same time, it’s magic. It’s magic based on science.

Thus, alchemy becomes our metaphor.

The four elements lie at the heart of alchemy. In our line of espresso blends, there are also four elements creating coffee: the earth grows, the water irrigates, the air pollinates, the fire roasts. The magical fifth element is the human hand. People participate in every life stage of coffee, so they ultimately unite the efforts of all the elements to obtain the drink itself.

To designate the elements, traditional alchemical triangle symbols are used. Thin lines, similar to drawings in alchemical treatises, add movement and life to these symbols. They help us to see how one triangle goes deep into the ground, another one leaves ripples on the water with its light touch, the third one emits fiery sparks, and an air vortex swirls inside the fourth one.

The name of the company is transformed into separate letters placed in different corners of the package — just the way the most important symbols were hidden in different places of alchemical manuscripts.

The side surfaces of the packaging are decorated with abstract graphics. It is inspired by the image of a flow, the mixing of layers and energies.

The main goal of all the alchemists was to find the Philosopher’s Stone, which, as we remember, can turn lead (and other base metals) into gold. This is the idea implemented in the fifth product of the line — The Fifth Element blend.