Avatar Coffee Roasters

ABOUT

In 2019, Avatar Coffee Roasters set out to carve their niche in the premium specialty coffee market. Unlike brands that cater to like-minded audiences, Avatar Coffee embraced a more inclusive ethos—eschewing like-minds for all minds. With roots in both India and Brazil, yet firmly grounded in Southern California, Avatar Coffee Roasters’ cultural influence and diverse team became integral to their identity.

But, despite their background, they struggled to establish a cohesive long-term vision. Leadership’s lack of clarity led to incoherent branding, haphazard category assimilation, and low-quality creative execution, resulting in two years of declining sales. Recognizing these challenges, I stepped in to help redefine their path forward with the goal of turning their fragmented identity into a unified brand capable of driving both consumer engagement and business growth.

SOLUTION

To achieve this transformation, I framed my approach around three pivotal questions:

1. How can we enhance brand asset execution and activation to boost ownability, visibility, and likelihood of purchase?
2. How can we unify design elements to create a cohesive, interconnected brand that is recognizable and memorable?
3. How can we build a robust foundation of distinct brand assets that supports ongoing creative content development?

Packaging became a key focal point. The goal was not just to enhance distribution and retail presence but to ensure the packaging itself became a vital brand touchpoint. Guided by the core idea to “reveal the sublime,” I designed the new packaging as an integral part of their brand platform to encourage extraordinary experiences. Every detail—from the deliberate use of color and white space to the strategic placement of brand elements—was intended to draw attention, facilitate easy scanning, and help customers uncover what matters.

RESULTS

What began as a brand in decline evolved into a comprehensive brand design and strategy project spanning a seven-month period that aligned their team around a clear and lasting vision. This new direction produced tangible results: a 3× increase in Units Per Transaction (UPT), over 1,000 products sold during a 14-hour grand opening event, and recognition through prestigious industry awards, including a Graphis Inc. Design 2024 Silver Award and GDUSA’s Best of the Year.