Each year, Bellingham-based roasting company Camber Coffee announces its Artist Series, showcasing a year-long collaborative effort with an artist. This year, Camber Coffee announced its partnership with Colombian artist Jhonny Núñez. Núñez is an internationally renowned illustrator and created an origin harvest scene for Camber which can be found on limited coffee releases, a Fellow Move mug, a jigsaw puzzle, and more.
“Camber has always been a representation of our love of coffee, people, food, art, and the natural world,” says Camber Coffee co-founder David Yake, “having the chance to feature work by artists we admire is a privilege. We’re excited to wrap some of our favorite coffees with this beautiful art,”
We spoke with David Yake of Camber Coffee to learn more.
Tell us about Jhonny Núñez the artist.
Jhonny Núñez is a multidisciplinary, award-winning Afro-Colombian artist. His whimsical, eye-catching art style and great professional talent have taken him around the globe.
He and his studio (jhonnystudio.com) have collaborated with brands like Uniqlo, Adobe, Victorinox, and the city of Medellin, Colombia. He even created some of the illustrations and murals for Disney’s Encanto! I still can’t believe that we got to work with him.
How did Camber Coffee connect with this artist?
Our former Marketing Coordinator, Dejah Kutrovski, found his work on Instagram. He lives in Cali, Colombia, but we figured, why not reach out?. The modern world is pretty unbelievable.
What was the collaboration like?
Despite the distance and language barriers, the project went remarkably smoothly. Jhonny is a true professional.
Tell us about the elements depicted in the origin harvest scene.
Jhonny’s goal was to capture the joy, urgency, and tremendous feats of cooperation that take place during the harvest season. He depicted a small farm, where the whole family is involved in the harvest. There are so many fun details in Jhonny’s illustration. You’ll find colorful flora and fauna to represent the vibrancy of a biodiverse coffee farm. There’s even an adorable capybara, a large rodent native to Colombia. He included coffee bushes with cherry that are at varying stages of maturity, to demonstrate the labor required to harvest only the ripest cherry. I love that he included a well-loved van/truck, since the trucks of Colombia are so memorable. There’s a lot going on!
Tell us about this year’s collection of Artist Series products!
Our team had a heyday with Jhonny’s work. We teamed up with Fellow to produce a custom-printed Move Mug. But my favorite item may be our jigsaw puzzle. We have some other fun merch projects in the works that we’ll release later this year.
What coffee was chosen for this project?
The first coffee release was almost too good to be true. It came from our friends at Granja La Esperanza, who are based in Jhonny’s hometown of Cali, Colombia! The coffee was an unbelievably juicy, double-fermented Gesha. The unique processing produced a superb cup, with layers of complexity and intense aromatics. We were sad to see it go.
We just released (6/11) our second Artist Series offering – the incredibly rare and delicious Bernardina variety from the Pacas family.
Our Artist Series features tiny lots, so I’d recommend folks sign up for our email newsletter so they can find out the minute a new coffee drops.
How can artists connect with Camber for future years?
Drop me a line! david@cambercoffee.com
Thank you, David!
