When Mara and Dev launched their coffee subscription service, their logo was a placeholder — their business name typed in a default font, dropped onto a circle. It worked for a soft launch, but not for the packaging their first real print run needed.
The brief
They wanted something that felt “warm, a little rustic, but not cliché coffee-shop.” No steam swirls, no beans, no cursive script. That was the whole brief going in.
The process
Using usstudiobytes, they generated a first batch of concepts from that brief and picked two directions to develop further: a lettermark built from their initials, and an abstract mark suggesting a pour-over cone without literally drawing one.
They went with the abstract mark, then spent an afternoon adjusting the angle of the shape and testing it against their packaging mockups until it read clearly at the size of a coffee bag label.
The result
The full identity — primary mark, single-color version, and a simplified icon for their app — was ready in time for their first retail order, without hiring a designer or extending their timeline.
We didn’t need a agency process. We needed a good-enough afternoon and a way to see options fast.