Unpacking Coffee with Kandace and Ray: Four Barrel Revisited

The new Four Barrel coffee packaging. Photo by Needmore Designs.

In today’s episode of Unpacking Coffee, Kandace and Ray revisit the venerable San Francisco roasting outfit Four Barrel Coffee, which recently rolled out new packaging.

As illustrator and designer Kevin Tudball explained to K-Ray, bringing forth new coffee bags can be a somewhat risky proposition, as time alone can propel a thing into iconicity — in Four Barrel’s case, simple brown craft bags with a vertically oriented black printed name/logo designed by owner Jeremy Tooker 10 years ago.

Kandace described the redesign as more of an evolution than an overhaul, and Tudball explains the many considerations involved in the redesign, including the creative use of artwork that even runs inside the bag, and lessons learned from the world of wine design.

Without further ado:

Unpacking Coffee is a show discovering new coffee roasters one episode at a time led by Kandace and Ray of the Portland-based studio Needmore Designs, which specializes in coffee, wine and lifestyle brands.