El Union Coffee & Roastery Inc. is a specialty coffee shop based in San Juan, La Union – a well known surf town north of Manila, in the Philippines. The El Union team and its owners, Kiddo and Amy Cosio, work with local coffee farmers to ethically source high quality beans, which are then roasted at origin to further push the sustainability of the product.

The brand identity was designed by Liam Andrew Cura (Artifact Studio). The brand’s unique voice and visual identity comes from a blend of Filipino folk sensibilities and a good helping of punk rock, psychedelia, and Americana. We used a wide selection of typefaces to deliver the right amount of tension in the design, starting with Kabel Black for the primary wordmark. Prior to this, El Union had no wordmark to represent the brand, so Kabel proved to be the perfect choice for its weight and classic characteristics. Jimi and Windsor’s softer edges and retro feel also gave the identity a playful sense of kitsch to balance the design out.

Overall, the identity’s flexibility was created to live and grow with the brand over the seasons, and serves as a reflection of the team itself; a colorful group of misfits who work, eat, party, and surf together.

Photos by: Paolo Avila, @thepaoloavila