When brothers and co-owners Tristan & Jackson approached Play House, they emphasized how personal + meaningful it was to have just opened a brick-and-mortar café in their hometown of Battle Creek, MI; in recent years, downtown had become a transient place to do business and split-town (nicknamed “Cereal City,” Battle Creek is still home to Kellogg’s and once the home to Post). Tristan and Jackson knew there was not only the need for a great cup of coffee downtown, but more importantly, there was an opportunity to provide community in an area that desperately craved it.

After quickly outgrowing a successful walk-up coffee cart, Café Rica knew their vision for the brand wasn’t fully realized. Café Rica expressed wanting the brand to feel tropical, approachable to the entire community, and pay homage to their Costa Rican heritage.

After launching a refreshed brand identity and labels for 3 flagship cold brew flavors, we started to look at the horizon. Together we’ve now released packaging systems for canned cold brew coffee, whole bean coffee bags, and canned iced tea. We’ve also knocked out single SKUs for lemonade and canned water, podcast design, menu design and café signage, seasonal merch releases, annual community event design, and more. Pura vida babyyyy!

PROJECT INVOLVEMENT:

Brand Identity
Packaging Systems, Design & Production
Signage & Environmental Design
Merch Design
Menu Design
Event & Campaign Design