Marcus and Kellie approached me after having worked on a project together a few years ago with a brand new concept for me to help them with.

They were following a dream they’ve had for a while, starting their own coffee shop / cafe.

This was a passion project for them as Marcus’s Dad originally owned the building when Marcus was a child, so for Marcus to buy the building as an adult and start a coffee shop / cafe of his own was just amazing for him.

They needed to achieve the following:

1. Create a mid to high-end cafe that aligned with companies like ‘Moose Coffee’ and ‘Cosy Club’
2. They wanted to offer a great brunch food offering
3. They had a coffee dealer they were working with to make and sell their own blend of coffee
4. A brand, colour scheme, visual style
5. An editable website that they could update themselves
6. A shop window / signage / hoarding designs

Finding out what makes them tick

To create a brand for someone, you have to find out what makes them tick, the reason why they want to do what they’re doing and as this was a small business, what personal connections could I make from them to this new brand.

I learned the following:

1. They have a passion for coffee that they got from their honeymoon in Jamaica
2. Whilst on their honey moon they bought a souvenir of a metal monkey painted blue
3. They want a loose, illustrative style
4. They’re a fan of dark colours / Farrow and Ball
5. They wanted to tell a story about the brand

What can I piece together

After discovering this souvenir they’ve kept precious for all these years I thought there was something in it. Then it came to me, let’s just call it ‘The Blue Monkey’. They initially loved this idea, but we came to the conclusion that the coffee shop being in the liverpool area they might put off potential customers because ‘blue’ is associated with ‘Everton Football Club’ So we settled on ‘Azul’ instead. Then ‘The Azul Monkey’ was born.

How will the brand look and feel

Now I had a name I could work with, that had the deep personal connection to them that they wanted I could look at answering the other key points of their initial briefing.

Colour scheme and font choices

What type of style should the brand be in

What should the logo look like

Now I had a colour pallete and a visual style to work in, I then began creatings logos.

The logo that made the cut was the below. It integrates a coffe bean and the monkey with the jungle vibe they were after. It’s also associated with the strapline ‘Coffee House of Enlightened Beans‘.

Character development

The illustrative style of the monkeys was eventually changed to be a looser, more hand-drawn style. But the original logo remained as they loved it.

The story of The Azul Monkey

One of the original touch points in the brief was to build a back story into the brand. So I focussed on the character, I called him ‘Blue’, the monkey.

I wanted the story to cover some of the key elements from their honeymoon. Below is the story of Blue.

“Our story starts in sunny Jamaica. Adventurous Blue had stowed away on a fishing boat from the isle of Nevis to explore and forage in the blue mountains conversing with the swallowtails and orioles…”

“He stumbled upon a rich yet delicate aroma way up high in the mountains, some 7000 feet to be precise.”

“This amazing high altitude aroma led him to the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee Co.”

“Blue was strangely entranced. It wasn’t long before he found himself head high in a hessian sack of these magical brown beans, only to be discovered by one of the company’s head grinder.”

“He befriended Blue and slowly but surely taught this strange primate all that he needed to do, to make the perfect cup of coffee.”

“Blue was a natural, albeit furry and possessing poseable toes. In no time this monkey marvel became part of the family business.”

“Until one fateful day. It was the day before a big delivery of beans was meant to head out and Blue, diligent as ever was checking the aroma, the quality, its shape, its balance (as only Blue could do). The sack was Liverpool bound.”

“He dearly loved his blue mountain family, but life like the coffee he loved was about balance. So he decided again to stowaway on a ship in a sack bound for the port of Liverpool. Blue liked the idea of another glorious adventure.”

“The dock workers discovered him many months later after he had presumably survived on copious amounts of coffee and coffee cake he had stored in a knotted hanky for such a trip.”

“Blue settled in Liverpool making fabulous brews for blues and reds alike. Bringing them the love of Jamaican Blue to this good city.”

“Azul Monkey is all about balance, the ying and the yang, the delicate and the rich, to work or to play, to drink in or take out. Make mine a cappuccino.”

What will the brand look like online

Next I created the high fidelity visuals of the website after wireframing on paper with Marcus and Kellie.