The challenge
Atrium was a young coffee company with a hand-drawn logo and big plans. Nat got in touch with a simple ask: clean up the logo and put a holding page online.
The original mark had charm, but it was too detailed to print or stitch, and a growing brand needs a logo that works everywhere it shows up, from a phone screen to a T-shirt. Once we got going, it was clear the logo was only the start.
How we got there
Instead of disappearing off to work on things in silo, I sat down with Nat in the shop (the lobby of 1 St Peter’s Square in Manchester) and we traded ideas and concepts. I took the strongest ideas back home, and refined them into the final mark.
How the logo evolved
Atrium's first logo was a single hand-drawn serif A, wrapped in a coffee plant with leaves and cherries. It was beautiful, charming and just what Nat and Atrium needed, but it was an illustration more than a logo.
My first job was to redraw it as clean vector line work so it could be used online. That initially solved the screen, but not print: the details were too fine to hold up. The moment it really hit home was when Nat wanted the logo embroidered on staff T-shirts, and it was simply too intricate to stitch. That pushed us to simplify properly.
The next step was a wordmark. I set "Atrium" in Playfair Display, a serif that echoes the original A, with the line "Coffee & Community" underneath. A solid start, but we needed more of the original logo in there. I tried a coffee bean, then a sprig of leaves and cherries growing out of the "i", and kept stripping it back until one leaf was left. That leaf now dots the "i", so the coffee plant from the original drawing lives on in a single, simple shape.
Typography
The logotype is a heavily customised Playfair Display, chosen because it calls back to the original hand-drawn A. Sofia Pro handles everything else, a clean, friendly sans that keeps menus and labels easy to read.
Colour
Nat came in with a clear idea of Atrium's palette: a deep navy, a warm, light cream, pure white and a touch of gold. My job was to make it work everywhere, using the gold as a flat accent or a soft gradient for moments that deserve a little shine.
When Atrium opened its roastery, we added a near-black for that premium feel. Each coffee release so far has been as a pair of bags, one in a white label and one in black, so the range feels like a set on the shelf, and man do they taste as good as they look.
Look and feel
The brief for the overall feel was clean and simple, but classy, with moments of boldness. Over time, the leaf from the logo has taken on a life of its own. Nat now uses it across the board, from staff T-shirts to the roastery's coffee bags, and it has become one of the most recognisable parts of the brand.
What we created
What began as a logo became everything Atrium shows to the world:
- Identity: logo, colour palette, typography and creative direction
- In the shop: menus, coffee tasting cards, opening-hours signs, A-boards, cups and staff T-shirts
- Roastery: coffee bag branding for their new roastery
- Recalibrate: a logo for their coffee education company
- Online: a holding page, then a fuller second website, LinkedIn banners and email signatures
- Socials: posts for anniversaries, cuppings and tasting evenings
- Print: business cards
Where they are now
Atrium has grown from one shop into a roastery and a coffee education company, and the brand has grown with it. It's now a name people recognise in the Manchester coffee scene, and wider still. That's of course down to the whole team and how well the business is doing, but the brand plays its part. The work has also led to three more projects for the studio, all through word of mouth.
Next, I'm working with Atrium on a new brand direction on a big project in the new year. That's brewing nicely (sorry)