Origo
Rebranding the pioneer of Romanian specialty coffee, ten years on
Origo opened in 2013 as the pioneer of specialty coffee in Bucharest — the first coffee shop and roastery of its kind — and quickly became the category’s market leader. It did more than sell coffee. It set out to educate a whole city’s palate, and trained Romanian baristas who went on to compete at the World Coffee Championships, making Origo a name known and loved by coffee people well beyond Romania.
By its tenth anniversary, Origo faced the particular challenge of a pioneer: the category it had created had grown up around it. Specialty shops were everywhere now, and "specialty" itself was no longer a novelty. The brand that had defined the movement had to make sure it still led it. The tenth anniversary was the moment to take the brand up a level — not to reinvent what made Origo loved, but to sharpen it for a market it no longer had to itself.
Brandient’s answer moved the story from the product to the people. "People of Specialty" made the community the point — the baristas, the roasters, the regulars — an identity that frames specialty coffee as a culture you belong to rather than simply a cup you buy. It is a claim only the pioneer could credibly make, because Origo had spent a decade building exactly that community.
The identity drew on Origo’s own history. The visual platform took its cue from the signature wall of coffee cups hung from the ceiling of the original shop — a detail every regular knows by heart — and turned it into a brand device that works as an insider’s wink: an "aha" of recognition and a sense of belonging, the brand quietly saying "we know you know us." A typography-driven system gave the upgraded brand more of its own personality and an easy common language with its audience. The rebrand kept faith with what had made Origo a local legend, while giving the category’s pioneer a brand sharp enough to keep leading the movement it started.
Client:
Panfil Consult
Industry:
Hospitality and HoReCa
Food and Beverage
Project type:
Rebranding — Brand Reconstruction
Date:
2023
Services:
Brand Positioning; ; Brand Name, Narratives and Voice; Logo and Visual Identity Program; Digital Design; Communication Design; Packaging Design
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