Café Rico – Revisiting a Classic

Design: Studio Projet Noir
Location: Malta
Project Type: Produced
Client: C.& M. Borg Coffee Dealers Co. Ltd.
Product Launch Location: Malta
Packaging Contents: Coffee
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Cardboard, Corrugated Cardboard, Aluminium
Printing Process: Flexography, Offset

Dating all the way back to 1886, C&M Borg Ltd. is a local company dealing in the importation of raw green coffee beans from around the world. Their carefully sourced beans come from Ethiopia, Kenya, Brazil, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Burundi among others. They are also skilled roasters – roasting some of the highest quality coffees, using precise roasting methods and offering them via their shop in High Street, Hamrun and to some of the best cafes and restaurants here in Malta.

Creating their own blends under the brand name of Café Rico, C&M Borg are always developing and innovating their coffee products. Studio Projet Noir were commissioned to reposition and rejuvenate the Café Rico brand to target a broader audience and also to create a new packaging system for their newly-introduced coffee pod range. The iconic symbol was revisited and cleaned up, restoring the character’s friendly features.

The wordmark was redesigned using a semi-serif typeface bridging classic and modern – reflecting the brand’s proud history while keeping their eyes on the future. The new consumer-friendly, 100% arabica, recyclable carton coffee pod box, features an opening for ease of use and houses 18 individually-packaged, recyclable aluminium pod sachets which guarantee freshness and preserve the aroma of the product. The E.S.E. (Easy Serving Espresso) pods are also compostable and biodegradable. This compliments the industrial 150 pod box produced in a recyclable corrugated cardboard material. The introduction of the cherry red packs a punch and adds a seductive warm look to the whole product range whereas the dark browns evoke the chocolatey, earthy and robust characteristics of the coffee.