Portfolio
New Moon Coffee
- 2025
- Logo Design
- Brand Identity
Challenge
New Moon Coffee & Roastery approached us with a uniquely personal and visually imaginative request: to create a brand identity showcasing a raccoon with an element of coffee. This whimsical request was symbolic of the founder's story and values. The raccoon represented resilience and underdog spirit, while the moon embodied transformation and the rhythm of new beginnings, both metaphors for her dream of building a community-rooted coffee shop.
My goal was to distill this emotional narrative into a logo that felt warm, intentional and iconic, one that could live confidently across different media, be scalable and simplified.
Approach
I explored a broad range of visual interpretations to help the client clarify her vision, ranging from geometric and minimal to illustrative and expressive. Each concept integrated the core elements: raccoon, moon and coffee; but through different stylistic lenses to evaluate tone and versatility. I refined toward a concept that struck the right chord, a symmetrical raccoon face cradled by a crescent moon, holding a cup of coffee at the center. This composition gave us the structural strength needed for a primary logo, with room to scale down cleanly for use as icons.
A Cozy Vibe
During our early discovery sessions, the client shared a Pinterest board filled with earthy, texture-rich interior inspirations filled with warm woods, soft lighting and vintage metal accents. These references became foundational to the visual direction, influencing both the brand’s tone and material sensibilities.
While the logo maintains a clean and structured design, I incorporated a distressed metallic texture into the crescent moon element as a nod to lunar craters. This detail reinforces the moon symbolism, but also introduces a rustic, tactile quality that echoes the homey vibe of the coffee shop environment. It softens the sharpness of the composition and ties the identity more closely to the physical space.
The Logo
The final New Moon Coffee logo is a visual storytelling piece grounded in warmth and symbolism. At the heart of the mark is a raccoon, chosen for its personal significance to the founder and for what it represents: adaptability, curiosity and a tenacious spirit. The raccoon cradles a steaming cup of coffee, reinforcing the shop’s role as a nurturing, welcoming space where comfort and community meet.
Framed within a waxing crescent moon, the logo becomes a symbol of growth, transformation and new beginnings. Subtle details like the swirling latte art, rising steam and twinkling stars add a sense of ritual and magic to the moment, making the mark feel more like a scene than a static icon.
Brand Guide
To ensure the New Moon Coffee & Roastery brand launched with consistency, I created a comprehensive brand guide that established the foundation for its visual identity across multiple touchpoints.
The guide outlines logo usage across multiple formats, including primary and secondary lockups, icon variants, and scalable favicon treatments with detailed guidance on structure, padding and minimum size requirements. I also defined how the brand should be applied in physical contexts, such as storefront signage, window clings, staff uniforms and packaging, ensuring that the logo maintains visibility and character.
Beyond the logo, the guide formalizes a custom earthy color palette inspired by café rituals featuring warm greens, deep browns and neutral tones paired with a typographic system that balances rustic charm with clarity. Together, these elements give New Moon a cohesive, memorable presence. It's also just really fun to be able to name colors and have it mimic the brand, with color names like Matcha, Coffee Bean, Crema and Oat Milk.
Making a Vision Come to Life
To help the client truly visualize the brand in the real world, I went beyond the standard deliverables by creating a series of immersive mockups, from storefront signage and window decals to custom packaging and product concepts.
This included a ceramic mug design tailored to the shop’s cozy aesthetic and an extended merch line. These visuals not only brought the brand to life in context, but also helped the client imagine how New Moon Coffee could expand and evolve.
Barista Aprons
As part of the brand rollout, I designed a set of custom barista aprons. The goal was to ensure the aprons felt both functional and refined, elevating the in-store experience for staff and customers while reinforcing the brand’s aesthetic. I developed two distinct offerings, a classic cut featuring a leather halter, which offers timeless utility and masculine appeal in contrast to the elegant cut, designed with a more tailored hourglass silhouette in mind.
In Closing
Designing the New Moon Coffee brand was a truly rewarding experience, the kind of project that reminds you why you love what you do. It’s not every day you’re asked to blend a raccoon, a crescent moon and a cup of coffee into a single logo, and even rarer to collaborate with a client as gracious, visionary and creatively open.
I'm proud to have helped bring this one-of-a-kind concept to life and excited to see how the brand continues to grow and connect with its community.
Follow @newmoon_coffeeandroastery for the latest updates.
