I was really stoked to be approached by long time legends and clients, The Hughes Brothers (the brains behind Hubrew Coldbrew), to help them get their next big venture off the ground. In my opinion these boys have the best cold brew coffee in Australia and I was sure that whatever they had “brewing” for their next project would be home-run. So what was in the works?
2 words: HUBRO Cafe.
That’s right, the boys had aspirations of getting up Newcastle’s next big cafe, and I couldn’t be more excited for them.
Playing off their name, their family history, and their effortless sense of style, we we brainstormed brand aesthetics. The challenge was to avoid looking like every other hip cafe, while also keeping to budget. The result – some truly crisp imagery and visual styles to be carried out across the new brand and shopfront, including menus, labels, coffee cups, business cards and more. Even their coffee machine was not spared.
Like so many of my cafe branding projects this one also called for the creation of a unique typeface. Creating a typeface for a word that represents the age behind the Hughes history in Newcastle, while still keeping it modern and attractive is always a challenge. Utilising old imagery sourced by the boys, I started by dissecting the relevant core then working the kerning and leading to create a perfectly balanced logo. Legibility is paramount, but so is recognisability wherever it may finally end up.
As we know, a brand’s logo plays a central part of its visual story and the boys were more than impressed with the results.
Designed to be versatile, below are uses of the logo in all its glory. Other collateral was also then worked up, as you can see, but it all started with that humble HUBRO logo.
