Caldo Coffee by 25ah, Sweden

Opinion by Richard Baird.

Caldo Coffee is a café serving organic coffee and fresh salads, sandwiches and pastries from its location in Stockholm’s Scandic Continental. It features a modern interior of light wood, tall shelves and a long wood panelled and marble topped counter. It also includes a large custom built menu board, neon signage and a brand identity created by Scandinavian graphic design studio 25ah which links coffee cups, price tags and takeaway packaging.

The custom built menu board is a real highlight. It has a sense of displacement and juxtaposition that lends a rather polished and current interior design an unexpected and slightly more downtown urban utility. It is a quality that the studio describe as drawing on the cafe’s central location. The rows of the menu board share a neat commonality with the very long linear build of the wood panelled coffee bar, while its proportionality, dominating in its size and length, functions as a memorable feature. This makes its way, although rather suitably, into print.

Logo is perhaps not as creatively satisfying as a designer might hope for, however, it functions, in conjunction with its proportionality in print and a lovely green, to be identifiable, provided nothing similar exists within the vicinity. The simplicity of its form, the continuous lines that draw a double C and monolinear weight is well-suited to neon signage. It is evident that this interior design detail was there from the start, within concept, a as reflection of the urban location, and went on to influence logo.

Indetity in print is a straightforward mix of printed logo and stickers. There is, however, even in its simplicity, a continuity between this packaging and the menu board in the condensed, uppercase san-serif letterforms and plenty of white. It is very suitable, and could have perhaps been more prominent in its connection to interior, in the same way logo does. More from 25ah on BP&O.

Design: 25AH. Opinion: Richard Baird. Fonts Used: Helvetica Condensed Bold.

What do you think of 25AH’s brand identity for Caldo Coffee? Share your thoughts in the comment section below or get the conversation started on Twitter.