Mammoth
Coffee Co.
Mammoth Coffee Company is a boutique coffee roaster based in New Orleans, LA. Founded by a husband and wife duo, Mammoth’s philosophy is to let the coffee do the talking. Their cafe is homey, modern, and inviting, and their approach to their product is always to highlight the distinctive profiles of each coffee they roast and stock.
The Project
Illustration
Custom handlettering
Apparel
Drinkware
The owners have an eye for good merch. They source art from designers and illustrators in their personal network and always aim to carry something unique. Rather than being locked into a visual style that reflects their brand assets, we opt for designs that are fresh and unexpected each time, but that still conveys the attitude of the brand: cheeky and irreverent, funny and welcoming. Our ongoing collaborations have included several limited edition merch suites over the past couple of years, focusing on apparel first, with modifiable assets that can translate to other formats.
The primary artwork was designed for a three-color, hand screen-printed tee. I modified the artwork with two additional colorways for two different drinkware applications.
Suite I
For our first collaboration, the inspiration was Maurice Sendak’s beloved Where the Wild Things Are. The plan was to work in imagery from the story but in a style that was unique–a nod to the book, rather than imitating Sendak’s illustration style. We wanted to evoke Max’s mischievous personality, but with a more adult feel. Instead of a kid, a skeleton, and instead of Max’s beast jammies, we ended up with a little play on words: our skeleton donned satin pajamas with devil horns and a tail. Thus, Satan Pajamas became our theme.
Suite II
For the second suite, we wanted a simple, graphic image that would work well with the water-based inks of DTG and merge into the fabric without losing detail. The brief was simple: the business name, made of snakes, on fire. What’s not to like?
I created hand-drawn lettering featuring wavy forms with snake heads and tails, and the snake’s eye repeated as a motif. There were two different graphic elements: the full version of the art for the back side of the tee, and a small flaming “M” on the front for a breast detail. We took the main typographic illustration and create a suite of stickers.
Suite III
For our most recent collaboration, the team wanted to do to lean into camp and Americana, with a subtle nod to their constantly rotating seasonal coffees and quirky speciality drinks. We settled on a fishing tee for a nostalgic feel. The idea was for the tee to be easily mistaken for an actual fishing shirt from a few yards away. We chose cool, classic colors paired with retro inspired typography for the breast detail.
