Coffee Design: Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters In Dallas, Texas

New year, new brew! After nearly a decade of DIY hand-stamping, the crew at Oak Cliff Coffee are proud to unveil their new printed packaging. OCC performed an all-around in-house brand refresh complete with a new bag, website, and subscription service. Revamping the look was no small feat, and we asked Client Experience Director Will Riggs to tell us more.

As told to Sprudge by Will Riggs.

Tell us a bit about your company.

Oak Cliff Coffee started about 9 years ago when Shannon Neffendorf, our owner, began roasting at home after seeing a lack of quality coffee in Dallas. Our customers began as neighborhood friends and family who would receive their coffee “milkman style” at 5am each week with a hand-stamped bag of coffee on their doorstep. While we still hand deliver to our close neighbors, we’ve developed a wonderful client list around Texas, which includes cafes, restaurants and others who are excited about serving great coffee.

Who designed the package?

 

These were done in house! They were the product of a larger brand refresh that included an updated logo and font-set, all new print collateral, as well as a new website and online subscription program. Having new bags was the first idea which started the now 2-year conversation towards refreshing our brand. We have a lot of great minds at the shop who’ve put a ton of time into what we want to say to our customers and what our brand means for the community of people we serve. Needless to say, it was nice to finally send off Version #33 of the bags to the printer.

What coffee information do you share on the package? 

We share a lot. On the front of the bag, our label gives the more immediate coffee information anyone at a cafe or grocery store would want to know: Origin, Roast Date and Sourcing Practice (Blend Components as well if needed). The label then wraps around the side for folks who want additional info: Region, Process, Varietal and Altitude. What’s on the bag itself is a lot of information applicable to both the “dark-roast Grandma” who grinds her coffee at the store and the coffee geek wanting to brew each bag using 6 different pour-over methods. Information on how we love to brew coffee as well as our various Sourcing Practices and the terms we use on each bag are clearly listed out for anyone curious about how to buy and brew better coffee. We’ve also included a new numbering system for each of our coffees that starts at our cupping table: we call it our Taste Guide. Each bag, whether it’s a blend or single-origin, is labeled with a number revolving around 3 primary tastes found in coffee. Our hope for this number is to allow someone less interested in specific details like origin and processing method, to easily find a coffee they’ll love at the store each time. If they love a 7, and there are no 7’s on the shelf, they better go for a 6 or an 8 before jumping all the way to a 3. We’re excited to help people easily find coffee they’ll love, especially in a grocery setting.

What’s the motivation behind that?

Everything we do, from our buying practices, to how we operate our cafe, revolves around transparency. We’ve noticed a lot of coffee bags now trying to be more art pieces that, while beautiful, are not really that helpful. We wanted something that spoke very clearly to our customers, “This is what you’re buying, this is what we love about it, here’s some more info to help you really enjoy this coffee.”

Where is the bag manufactured?

We had the best team of folks from Pacific Bags in Woodinville, Washington working with us over the last two years. The bags themselves were manufactured in Taiwan, right in the middle of their holidays and a typhoon. We’re very grateful for their experienced team who made this project happen.

For package nerds, what type of package is it?

The bag is a custom built Block Bottom Bag with smooth-side kraft showing on the exterior. Each bag has a one-way degassing valve specifically placed to align with the bag’s forward fold as well as a black tin-tie. The printing utilizes 3-color Flexography, white and 2 custom matched blues.

Where is it currently available?

Our bags will be in full production starting January 16th, and can be ordered at OakCliffCoffee.com and can also be found all around Texas wherever our incredible clients are located.

Photos courtesy Oak Cliff Coffee, taken by Carl Sullivan & Will Riggs.

Coffee Design is a feature series by Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge. Read more Coffee Design here.