Twelve Twenty Coffee
Twelve Twenty Coffee is a mobile specialty coffee shop slinging hand-crafted beverages to events, festivals, and pop-ups throughout the DMV area. Anything they don’t make themselves, they bring in from woman and BIPOC-owned local businesses, like their beans, alt milks, and sweet treats.
The Project
Brand identity, marketing and event
collateral, custom merch, illustration
This project was a brand refresh to mark the transition from a brick-and-mortar shop to a fully mobile coffee business. We worked together on their original visual identity back in 2021, and knew we wanted to retain the core brand concept. The updated brand needed to convey a sense of evolution, maturity, and adaptability to suit a constantly changing environment, but maintain the familiar imagery and vibe that locals had come to love. The goal was sleek, adaptable brand that could harmonize with a variety of locations and customer groups, but kept the inviting tone and playful themes familiar to locals,
While Twelve Twenty still shows up in more fun, eclectic spaces (like BlerdCon, beer festivals, and art markets), they also now include a large number of corporate events and weddings, where a somewhat subdued, contemporary look is more appropriate for the setting. The updated branding needed to work in both types of scenario. We opted for fairly minimal logotype to keep it polished, but used a typeface that mimics printed newspaper type to avoid being overly sanitized. I reworked the main Tarot-inspired illustration, giving it a cleaner finish that was easier to translate to various applications.
The rebrand was debuted at the official relaunch party, a self-organized outdoor market with live music, food trucks, vintage clothes, and art vendors.
For the relaunch, we collaborated on a custom merch, most notably, a limited addition coffee tin with a wraparound illustration of a coffee shop in space. We highlighted some familiar imagery from previous merch suites and cafe decor, including tarot cards and playful occult imagery, all floating in a zero-G environment. We also released stickers and a custom tote featuring the promotional artwork for the party itself.
The original visual identity was designed for a cozy cafe atmosphere, and with the transition to a mobile trailer, the context shifted dramatically. Instead of a predictable day-to-day flow in an environment surrounded by other retailers, offices, and restaurants, the trailer would show up in completely different settings from week to week. With that came a major change in audience makeup: less regulars, broader demographic scope, and variable preferences.
The challenge became updating the visual system without losing the equity established with the community by the original brand. The rebrand retains the playful themes that inspired the cafe concept as an undertone, but simplifies the overall look.
