5 DESIGN TRENDS AT THE LONDON COFFEE FESTIVAL 2022
Steffi Griffin, Graphic Designer, Matthew Algie
We're proud to be part of an experiential, creative and vibrant industry, where design is second only to the coffee itself.
In a room full of people, the London Coffee Festival had an abundance of stands all competing for attention: to share their products, their knowledge, and their services. So … what design trends stood out and why? We asked one of our in-house designers, Steffi Griffin, to highlight the leading trends...
1. SIMPLICITY
Today we are all accustomed to sorting through mountains of information quickly. Think about social media – the speed we breeze over a post once we have decided it isn’t relevant to us. Or the video we abandoned watching because it lost our attention within the first few seconds. Sometimes, a glance is all a brand gets to engage its audience: for a message to get the point across. As a result, simple, clear, and uncrowded design often stands at the forefront of trends. Messages should be short and concise and easily understood. Once you have captured their attention you can delve into the details. But it must stay relevant, interesting, and well written.
Common trends in packaging design focus on a laid-back appearance: geometric shapes and line art for illustrations; single blocks of colour; clean font choices; and generous use of space. Together the design appears modern, minimalistic and communicates information tactfully.
You can also apply this minimalist design style to infographics. Translating information into a simple format makes messages easier to read, noticeable and digestible. Using icons and images also makes the experience more interesting and visually engaging, increasing your interaction with customers!
2. WHITE COFFEE BAGS
Packaging…it’s part of the brand; it’s part of the experience. One thing I noticed at LCF was that off-the-shelf sustainable packaging is ever more often white. Let’s face it…it’s sleek! A blank canvas ready for some truly heightened branding opportunities. Looks like the kraft bag will need to make room for its newest rival!
3. FLAVOUR THROUGH ART
Sometimes it’s the extraordinary that stands out. A great way to achieve that in a world of coffee is to go beyond the expected. Utilising flavour through art can be an art itself but with the right appearance, coffee can be brought to life. Smooth flavours can be suggested with soft lines, bolder flavours reflected in colour and single-origin profiles can resemble national flags. Photography is also a great way to translate blends and coffee notes. Maybe a coffee can communicate an emotion through location, such as a beach. Or maybe you could use certain foods or fruits (like in our taste cards) to pick out key flavours in the taste experience. Art has the power to communicate a blend before a sip has even touched the lips of the customers!
4. GOING OFF TOPIC
Next up... Illustrations! London Coffee Festival is booming with some fantastic branding and tones of voice. But brands that chose a different, unconventional route really allowed themselves to stand out. Although non-coffee focused, these visual ideas add an energy and originality to each company’s product offering that sets them apart from the crowd!
5. THE MANY ILLUSTRATIONS OF ORIGIN
And lastly, whilst on the topic of illustrations, London Coffee Festival saw a splendid range of visual representation for coffee origin on packaging. Key trends that appeared included the use of geometric shapes and line art to artistically visualise the landscape, people, or culture at origin - a design style that links back to our first trend of keeping it simple. It can be a difficult task to reinvent the traditional appearance of origin but taking a fresh approach through art can help bring the brand to life and offer something new to the public, creating space between you and your competitors.
Steffi Griffin
Graphic Designer at Matthew Algie
Steffi is passionate about sustainable design practices and recently worked on our new Peak & Wild brand. She has been with Matthew Algie for almost 3 years with 9 years experience within the design industry.
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