Brick & Mortar Coffee: 2014

Brick & Mortar Coffee isn’t your average coffee roaster. The goal is to move people toward greater coffee craftsmanship from the tasting room to the roasting process through sharing the coffee, experience and tools to craft coffee at home or in a café. With owner Jonathan Putnam’s vision and love of all things vintage and industrial, the renovation of an old motorcycle shop on Route 66 was a no-brainer. A simple building with three rooms became a tasting room and café, roastery, and storehouse. 

Exterior murals—as a new business the desire to quickly and interestingly showcase their work led to a large, eye-catching mural on the front of the building. With only two parking spaces in front of the building, it was important to communicate the available parking on the side and rear of the building while keeping with the visual style of the rest of the business and building.

Entry signage—the front single door and rear double entryway displayed logo, hours, and contact information.

Cold Brew label—written with the humor and quirk of the business founders in mind, this label both explained what the product was and how it could be served while leaving space for best-by dates and bottle size.

Stamp labels—smaller orders were individually bagged and labeled by hand. Since each bean roasted has a unique flavor profile and origin, larger mason jars were affixed with custom stamped manila tags where each jar could be labeled as it was filled.

Vision statement—the focal point of the tasting room was a large mural stating the vision of Brick & Mortar Coffee. It is by far the most Instagrammed piece of their business.

Menu—the menu is hand lettered on a butcher paper roll hanging behind the bar. As varietals and offerings change the menu can be pulled down, ripped off, and rewritten.

Counter cards—craft paper signs mounted to corrugated cardboard stands are provided to café and restaurant operations that serve Brick & Mortar coffee.

Invitational—a soft open invitational was held to celebrate the over a year remodel completion and soon open storefront. Craft paper double sided quarter page invitations were passed out to each invitee.

Coat rack—in keeping with the vintage industrial theme a stripped, planed, sanded and stained tree trunk was mounted with hammered black plumbing pipe and joints to create a six hook rack for backpacks, coats, and scarves.

Bathroom—not even the bathroom was neglected when it came to the ambience of the tasting room. A gallery wall behind the sink and toilet showed the journey from the first beans to the finished roastery.

Christmas decor—stainless steel pots with cinnamon, burlap, twigs, and cranberries decorated tabletops and counters while ornament mobiles accented the vision statement wall and espresso machine.

Art Direction/Design/Painting: Mikaela Buck
Copywriting: Sarah Jenkins
Woodwork: Jeremy Tjarks
Photography: Sam Holder