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Responses by Kęstutis Nenartavičius, designer, Coffee Mate Group

Background: Kavos Draugas, or Coffee Mate Group, created Parallel Coffee for a broad audience: people who are interested in coffee culture, and want to extend their knowledge about coffee. Therefore, the purpose is to find these people and tell them the story about the origins of coffee. The Coffee Belt, or the Bean Belt, is a horizontal strip of land between the Tropics that surrounds the Equator, passing through Central and South America, Asia and Africa. Countries that lie within the belt are characterized as an ideal place for coffee plantations. This is why we created the coffee bean blend from specialty coffee beans by Parallel—for consistent perfect coffee taste.

The old packaging was made of two parts: the inner packaging and the box. Over time, we decided to reuse additional material; however, the inner packaging did not contain textual information, so it was not suitable for sale without the box. Therefore, by changing packaging design, it was aimed not only to improve the visual appearance of packaging, but also to solve this problem.

Reasoning: Three different colors were used to create the packaging design, in order for each coffee to have its own unique detail. The shiny side is the main thing that makes it different from other coffee packages. These glossy colors give the packaging a sense of luxury. In addition, it confirms that Parallel coffee beans are of a premium blend. It’s also important to mention that the Ziplock part helps to preserve the aroma of coffee for a longer period of time. We wanted to create not only the unique design, but also a package with all the necessary information that buyers need so the current Parallel coffee packaging could stand on the shelf without the box.

Visual influences: The main factor determining the decision of the design was the Coffee Belt and the coffee’s regions of origin. Depending on the continent, we chose a subtraction of the highest north and the lowest south degree parallel to the Coffee Belt and created new coffee blends by Parallel: 12 degrees for Ethiopia and Tanzania, 17 degrees for India and Papua New Guinea, and 36 degrees for El Salvador and Brazil.

Challenges: Creating the key factor that helps this coffee stand out on the shelf: Parallel’s number on the front side. Finding the system that could calculate the exact degrees in a way that customers would be able to recognize it on the coffee package was the hardest part. We wanted customers to understand this idea came from the package itself, so we had to think of design solutions that could tell the story of these numbers.

Favorite details: How unique this coffee is, since the mixture is loudly speaking for itself. This blend is a true and unique representative of The Coffee Belt, the place of quality and the real meaning of coffee. The luxurious packaging improves the strength of the message of uniqueness, enabling you to enjoy the highest quality coffee from around the world just right here at your home. We also are proud that we created the packaging ourselves without any help from design agencies. For the last ten years, we have always tried to create our own packages and, finally, we managed to achieve such a feat that our package design is being noticed.

kavosdraugas.lt

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