A refined identity for a third-wave roaster — from the cup to the storefront, the wholesale bag to the cap of the espresso machine.
Lumen's founders had spent seven years sourcing single-origin beans for other cafés. They knew their coffee. What they didn't have was a way to talk about it that felt like them — equal parts technical and warm.
I built the identity around a custom italic wordmark — a single drawn character that becomes the brand's voice. From there, a tight type stack (a humanist serif paired with a geometric sans) and a confident, restrained color palette built around one warm accent.
For packaging, the system scales from single-origin bags (with full provenance notes) to 1kg wholesale sacks, all using the same grid and a small set of icons. Each origin has a hand-drawn ornament; the rest of the design steps back to let the bean speak.
Lumen opened in spring 2026. Within four months they were profitable. The wholesale business doubled. The bags they ship — and the brand they built — became reference material in the trade.