Coffee Design: Take Flight Coffee In Los Angeles, California

Here’s a stunning package from Take Flight Coffee in Los Angeles, California. Take Flight has been roasting for just over a year, shipping out coffee in thoughtful packaging. We enjoy its straight forward type, it’s color story, and the playful two-ounce tubes. We asked Deaton Pigot of Take Flight to tell us more, and that’s when things really took off.

Tell us a bit about Take Flight Coffee.

We are a company of six that is only 13 months into trading, but together we have 40+ years of experience in the coffee industry. Our expertise hails from companies like, Intelligentsia Coffee, Handsome Coffee, Toby’s Estate Coffee NYC/SIN, and Espresso Republic. All of our Central American and South American coffees are either Direct Trade or Relationship coffees and we cherry pick the best coffees from East Africa each season.

When did the coffee package design debut?

We were wholesaling from June 2016 for a handful of months with just our bags, until the boxes landed in August 2016. It wasn’t too much of a delay, but we sure were thankful when they landed, and everything felt complete.

Who designed the package?

 

We used a design firm called Mende Design out of San Francisco. I knew of their work when I was at Intelligentsia Coffee, and they were doing the rebranding for Ecco Cafe (Andrew Barnet of Linea Caffe) before Intelli decided to absorb the brand. Jeremy Mende is a very cerebral designer and fun to work with. The more you look at our designs the more and more detail you find. The experience starts when opening the box and develops to a whole new vibrant experience with pulling out the bag. As you take in the beautiful design you learn more about our story all while enjoying a delicious brew.

We got ahold of your coffees in twelve-ounce and two-ounce sizes.

We also wholesale in five-pound bags and have some special release coffees in a six-ounce canister too.

Cool! We’re fond of the little tubes. Tell us more!

Yes! The two-ounce canisters meet our needs in two ways. One, we use them to give to our wholesale customers as samples and offer them to our wholesale customers as a single item or our online customers as a “flight”. The flights are fun as we pick three of the best coffees we have and send them out for people to cup or just have a variety of coffees for the week.

Where is the package manufactured?

The boxes are done through Everetts Graphics in Oakland, CA, the bags we have done through Pacific Bags in Woodinville, WA. Pacific bags print in China using a rotogravure printing method, which is sure to make some jaws drop. For the printing geeks, rotogravure printing is a high-speed printing method that uses diamond-etched images that get pressed directly onto the bag for high quality printing, every time. The result is a much sharper print than a digital print. The two-ounce canisters I buy through Sav-on-bags here in Los Angeles.

What type of package is it?

We’re proud to say that we use CCNB (clay coated news back) paperboard that is made from 100% recycled paper, using a minimum of 85% post consumer waste paper. The finished cartons can be recycled again! Furthermore, we can pop a shipping label right on the box for individual orders and avoid additional packaging.

Where is it currently available?

Currently we are working with cafes and restaurants throughout LA and we are slowly making our way up and down the coast. If you are interested in trying our coffee at a cafe (we currently wholesale/ but actively looking for our own retail locations) email us through our website, tag us on IG or even tweet at us and we will let you know if there is a spot nearby. Or simply head to our online store and we can ship directly to you!

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