Twelve Twenty Coffee
About
Twelve Twenty Coffee is a mobile specialty coffee shop bringing top-notch coffee classics and inventive drinks, all crafted by hand. Anything they don’t make themselves, they bring in from women and BIPOC-owned businesses in the DMV area, like their beans, alt milks, and sweet treats.
The Project
Full brand identity
Event collateral
Merch
Illustration
Goals
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––in short, it was time to simplify and elevate.
The Brand
The original visual identity worked in a cozy cafe atmosphere, but didn’t translate to a mobile situation. The design needed to suit a sleek mobile trailer that would be popping up at everything from corporate events to weddings to local markets. We opted for a lighter, airier look that felt more contemporary, including lightening and simplifying the color palette and making the updated logotype the primary logo.
The non-negotiable keepers were the typeface and the unofficial Twelve Twenty mascot, the barista goddess. The concept was based on the Temperance tarot card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck, which holds special meaning for the owner. We also kept the same general themes for imagery, which involved a mix of retro-afro-futurism, occult/spooky characters and objects, and always imagining we’re in a coffee shop in outer space. At the official relaunch, we introduced a custom-designed coffee tin featuring an illustration of exactly that, plus a limited run of screenprinted illustrated totes.
