Wunderground Coffee is a Seattle-based coffee company specializing in adaptogenic mushroom coffee. The motivation behind the brand was to make coffee that inspires wonder, creativity, and delight. The brand conceptually aimed to make the adult version of the back of a cereal box—a moment to spark creativity. Wunderground’s goal was to expand the visual language of coffee packaging with wonder and play, while simultaneously expanding the benefits of coffee as well.

Mushroom coffee was a newer product at the time, which led to confusion about our products’ taste and efficacy. We needed to convince our target audience that our coffee is just as delicious, if not more, as traditional coffee but with additional health benefits. 

Developed with Paper Crane Factory, the brand identity, leans on a playful color palette and character illustrations by Yaegashi Kimiaki to represent different products while evoking a unified feeling across all brand visuals. Utilizing consistent forms, such as typeface, logotype and mark, illustration style, and motion we maintained a consistent brand feeling across imagery amidst a varying color palette. We reiterated this idea of playing with color and restraining with form in the product photography by, Tyler Nix. Utilizing different visual levers in prescribed manners allowed us to move beyond the singular color logo on a white background and create a flexible, yet consistent brand system. 

We expanded our brand system into our flagship retail cafe to highlight the Wunderground’s founder—a former Starbucks employee and Seattle native. This unique brand touchpoint highlighted Wunderground’s deep connection to Seattle’s coffee culture, further working to establish a space to activate the social verification our products needed. 

We organized the cafe space by creating a principle of foreground and background interactive hierarchy to create a dynamic customer experience. The foreground experience consisted of a massive nurse log installation by Electric Coffin. They made a custom silk screen pattern with mushroom and coffee-themed imagery which was repeated throughout the cafe space. The foreground environmental experience could take a long time to digest in detail, but simultaneously created an immediate impact for customers on the go.

The background experience consisted of branded color accents and Wunderground products in the retail space to create subtle directional cues. Intuitively guiding a customer through the cafe's ordering experience without the need for a lot of signage. The bright colors and Wunderground packaging were offset with weighty, natural materials like exposed concrete, wood, and painted metal to create a sense of stability and calm.

In all elements of the brand from illustrations and color to the curated cafe experience the Wunderground brand exhibits a sophisticated interpretation of wonder and play.

AIGA Eye on Design
Trippy Packaging Brings the Next Wave of Mind-Altering Products to Life

by, Rachel del Valle