Canadian coffee roaster and wholesaler Lord & Lady has refreshed its brand identity.

The new design, handled by Cossette, bucks a recent trend among artisan coffee roasters that have been packaging their products in brown or neutral packaging, instead favouring “big, bold colours,” according to Luis Coderque, Cossette’s head of design.

Lord & Lady was founded in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While it is sold in a handful of coffee shops, and does wholesale business for foodservice and offices, the pandemic retail environment meant it had to adjust quickly to an online and direct-to-consumer sales model, offering orders on individual bags of beans, as well as subscription boxes.

Where Lord & Lady stands out is its focus on the origins of its various coffee blends. While other roasters may call that out with naming or a simple description on package, Lord & Lady’s new design reflects that by instead using hand-placed stickers that are reminiscent of those used to label fruit.

“The thing that stuck with the design team the most were the origin stories behind each blend. Every bean has its own story and we wanted to carry that into our design,” Coderque says. He adds that the flexibility inherent in a hand-placed design system means it can be easily applied to other things, like merch or business cards.

The ultimate goal of the redesign was to present a fun product in a vibrant and inviting way. That was important to the brewer after it “realized that a lot of consumers aren’t used to making their own coffee; a lot of them find all of the steps and gadgets intimidating,” says Kristen O’Coin, Lord & Lady’s managing director.

Fun and vibrancy helps motivate consumers take the extra steps to make an artisan cup of coffee for themselves, but finding an easy way to communicate the origin and features of each bag is also the first step in an educational journey Lord & Lady hopes to guide its customers through. Its website currently features a learning academy where customers can learn about the details of a wide range of different brewing methods, something O’Coin says is still in the “beginning stages” and will continue to grow.

“We want to encourage people to start where they are — it doesn’t need to be fancy, just delicious,” she says.