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Costa Coffee

Contributed by james millner on Jul 3rd, 2014. Artwork published in .
Costa Coffee 1
Leaflets ©Costa Coffee. License: All Rights Reserved.

Although England is usually considered a nation of tea drinkers, coffee was once the more popular drink – there were more than 3,000 coffee houses in England in 1675, at a time when tea was taken only by the aristocracy. Today the English drink tea and coffee both at home and on the move; when out shopping, they’re likely to be drinking at Costa Coffee. Costa Coffee is the country’s most popular coffee house, and is now the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world, after Starbucks.

Except for the simple logo, Costa normally uses the thoroughly good Clarendon in condensed form (and occasionally the Clarendon-esque Rosewood) to accompany the strong purple and brown colour scheme. This provides a re-assuring traditional English background for the large prints of Roman cityscapes and Tuscan landscapes that remind us that the firm was founded by two unemployed 30-something Italian immigrants who ‘couldn’t find a decent cup of coffee’ in the cafes and tearooms of their adopted homeland (Daily Mail).

Costa Coffee 2
Leaflets ©Costa Coffee. License: All Rights Reserved.
Costa Coffee 3
Leaflets ©Costa Coffee. License: All Rights Reserved.
Costa Coffee 4
Leaflets ©Costa Coffee. License: All Rights Reserved.

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2 Comments on “Costa Coffee”

  1. George Andrew Forsyth says:
    Oct 18th, 2017 4:05 pm

    There is also a very interesting font that is used and printed on the backs of the Costa Coffee uniforms, for example “BARISTA MAESTRO”. Please could you inform us on the font’s name and show some photographic examples of this on this webpage. Definitely distinctive!

  2. Hi George, I assume these are the uniforms you are referring to, yes? That’s Hurry Up, a freebie by Ray Larabie.

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