Grass Roof Café
Grass Roof Café, a play on the word “grassroots,” is a conceptual rooftop garden café designed to promote environmental stewardship and community through coffee. The challenge was to communicate the brand’s purpose-driven mission and values through a bold, fun, and timeless visual identity.
The design solution was to create a brand identity that has a “handmade” look and feel that highlights community, environmentalism, and local involvement. The soft, hand-drawn look in the fonts and illustrations gives the café an approachable warmth and communal, yet bold feel.
Role: Art Director, Designer, Strategist, Illustrator
Visual Identity Design Brand Strategy Illustration Logo Design
THE ROOFTOP
Rooftop gardens create a calming, natural ambiance and provide plentiful environment benefits like reducing air pollution, improving air quality, managing stormwater, and cooling urban areas. This grounding quality is woven into the tone and messaging, inviting people to find comfort in their local, eco-conscious coffee spot.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The garden imagery is at the core of the visual identity, from lush, green imagery to illustrations of plants growing from coffee cups like the roof of the café. The details are woven into each drawing carefully: the tea kettle imitates a watering can and the moka pot has geometric “roots” and “flower petals.”
LOGO & COLOR PALETTE
The “GR” logo nods to the design of a coffee cup or moka pot, with the counter and leg of the “R” resembling a handle. The café utilizes an earthy yet bold two-tone color palette that excludes green to set it apart from other sustainability-focused brands; allowing it to complement the surrounding natural environment.
Watch the design process: