Couplet Coffee was founded by “first-gen immigrant, lesbian, and a lover of all things coffee” Gefen Skolnick. Skolnick utilized Twitter to raise capital to start the company, and the Couplet in turn raised funds through social media for racial justice organizations (collecting over $200,000 along the way). Did we also mention Couplet Coffee knows how to have fun? With queer centered events and parties, wrapped up in packaging that’s emblematic of the company’s ethos.
The branding and design at Couplet is bold, exciting and colorful, a must-feature in the Spring ’22 collection of Coffee Design on Sprudge. We spoke with Couplet Coffee’s Chief Gay Officer Gefen Stolnick to learn more about the “creative collisions” and artist collaborations that helped shaped the look of the brand today.
Tell us about Couplet Coffee and your team!
Couplet Coffee was ultimately founded to make coffee more fun and approachable. I’ve always taken an avant-garde approach to entrepreneurship and invested in brands I believe in. Couplet started as a passion project that grew into a brand that is becoming a cult favorite, just ask our TikTok community! The brand really resonates with quirky, independent thinkers, and of course the queer community, which I’m proudly a part of. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and we enjoy building this brand and consuming the product. We create things we are excited about and our standards are high.
For a long time, it was just me, creating limited edition drops through Xx. We now have a full team composed of Tsukuru Fors, Ops and Support; Gabbie Holt, Wholesale Specialist; and Kylie Mena and Czarlyn Ria, our Marketing and Design team. Now that we are a full fledged team we’re looking forward to bringing Couplet to the masses! We recently launched our DTC website and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Your packaging is delightful! Who designed it?
Javier Garcia, a super talented brand designer and founder of Entropia agency.
Tell us about some of the unique design elements of the bag.
Some of my favorite elements include the holographic material, and the way the bag tells a story. The person highlighted in the middle holds a coffee plant in their left arm and gets coffee poured in their right arm—giving a glimpse into the lifecycle of coffee. We really care about visual design and aesthetic with every item we sell. We generally try our best to keep all the copy as approachable and fun as possible so people don’t feel intimidated!
Speaking of design—can we talk about The Mooka Pot? How did this come about?!
I was thinking through a couple different ways to engage more people outside of the specialty coffee ecosystem, and quickly landed on simply sourcing and creating coffee equipment that tells the consumer that coffee can just be fun.
Where is Couplet Coffee available?
You can purchase Couplet Coffee, merch and equipment as well as limited-edition drops directly on https://coupletcoffee.com
What’s next for Couplet Coffee?
Our goal is to utilize the Couplet platform for change and celebration. (the raising money for racial orgs was a project outside of Couplet). And let me mention, producing queer-community centered parties and events and working with more coffee shops!
Thank you!
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