Stereoscope is a specialty coffee roaster based in Los Angeles . Stereoscope’s ambition is to create a positive impact with the farmers and his local community, and to make the packaging be a manifestation of their philosophy. Inspired by the etymology of Stereoscope and their practise, we saw the potential to look at coffee in a larger cultural and ecological context and attempt to offer a different perspective on this plant, recognising it as a living organism.
To manifest this philosophy, we chose a typeface that didn’t have strong historical references, to not impose any cultural and historical heritage to the brand. We wanted the typography to feel alive and in constant flux, capturing the interconnectedness of things. The grotesque sans serif comprises 5 distinct widths combined randomly. The result has an air of irreverence and its emblematic of the five elements theory, the ever changing nature and the five principles considered to make each coffee unique. The coffee flower also has five petals. In the Stereoscope universe, coffee is recognised as a living plant and we gave it its own voice by printing a text where the seed are talking in first person on the coffee bags, made of 99,6% plant based material. For the packaging, we created a custom designed box inspired by a mountain shape, associated to the high altitude typical of cultivation of C. Arabica. The boxes comes in four colors, all made of FSC certified paper embellished by a rounded foil blocking and a common text about Stereoscope vision. The boxes are delivered flat with a tear-off opening on the bottom of the box. The opening ritual is unique to the brand together with a card system for each coffee, reducing the use of glue and backing-paper waste from adhesive labels to a minimum.