2nd Annual Sprudge Design Awards Semi-Finalists: Outstanding Packaging, Whole Bean

Speckled Ax Wood Roasted Coffee

Speckled Ax is one of only a few companies that roast coffee with a wood-fired roaster, and we wanted our new single-origin and seasonal coffee box line to do more than simply state this fact in words. The result is a package that gestures in form and feels like a traditional matchbox. The scaled-up proportions are roughly in line with what you might expect for a box of matches; there is an inner tray (holding a vacuum-sealed bag of coffee) that slides out from a protective, branded sleeve; and there is a faux strike strip (which is actually a repeated, hand-lettered word, “ax”) that runs along one side of each sleeve. There’s a pleasing heft and solidity to the box, but the paperboard material is thin enough to allow a holder to feel the coffee within, keeping it from becoming a completely rigid and static object.

It feels like it’s handmade and special because it is. The artwork and color palette also leans into the fact of our being a Maine-based business, and our state’s identity as the most heavily forested in the nation. While the designs for each box are varied, they all talk to one another and harken to our preoccupation with Maine’s woods and waters.