#1. louis beaudoin

as a way of thanking people for helping make the cafe the way it is today, i am going to write a series of posts. this is the first.

out in montreal living with julie's sister, louis ploughed in hours and hours of research and work into making the logo what it is today. louis provided background ideas and concepts and then developed four different creatives.

at first, julie and i were thinking about making a mosaic design integral to the shop interior and transferring this into the logo. louis had some sensible reservations about doing this: "it's going to be hard to include this without it looking too latin american. when I see patterns like that, i tend to instantly think about Mexico or Spain and i don't think that's what you want to convey."

it was true. we had talked about pitching ourselves as the hub for the local community and a mosaic-style may not do that particularly well. the other angle was to try and pitch the logo as something that says 'relaxed and cozy'. louis felt that this was an interesting avenue although it has been done to death by many a cafe.

nonetheless, louis went away to research on ideas and came back to us with these four:

logo 1

"this concept is loosely based on the definition of the word 'haven' which is 'a place of refuge or rest; a sanctuary'. the circle around the name can be seen as a sort of refuge or safe place. the typographu used is light, giving the logo a relaxed and natural look. the logo can be rotated at nearly every angle making it more versatile for the collateral. colors are just ideas for now, definately not final."

logo 2

"this concept conveys a little better the 'local' aspect of your business. the points of the circle converging to the center could represent the fact you use local suppliers. the typography gives a more solid and young feel compared to the first concept. again, colors are just ideas for now, definately not final. "

logo 3

the outside runner - Louis felt that this logo feels and looks too much like Tim Hortons.

the above commentary does not necessarily convey the sheer number of hours Louis put into the designs. Louis read through our business plan, listened to our ideas and came up with this:

logo 4

"my personal favorite. The idea came to me while doing some research for your logo, I stumbled upon images of latte art and I thought why not do something like this for your logo but a bit more graphical and simple. I litteraly drew the name using ink to make it look like cream dripping on top of coffee. There isn’t an incredible concept behind this logo I admit, but I think it really conveys a fun, relaxed, young and not so serious image, just like you guys (wink, wink). And also it doesn’t really remind you of anything you’ve ever seen before for a coffee shop (at least to me). It is also a very verstile logo and could be used in a really fun manner in all the collateral."

louis' vision and creativity has given us a design and a solid platform for which we can develop a strong brand.

we are very much indebted to louis and appreciate all the time and effort he put into developing our business. thank you louis!