Earnest Pursuit Coffee Roasting is a New York City specialty coffee company going all in on tin. Their packaging provides a delightful color story, friendly illustrations, and it all comes in a tight little 300 gram tin. Nothing tastes as good as tin looks, so we caught up with Earnest Pursuit’s founder to find out why.
We spoke with the founder Dylan Marvin to learn more.
What was the inspiration behind this design?
Walk down any specialty coffee aisle and you’ll see a lot of beautiful bags, but they’re all bags. Sometimes it’s a bag and then a box. But the general design structure is remarkably similar. At Earnest Pursuit we care about design and about the entire experience of drinking coffee, from the moment you spot it on a shelf to the last sip. We wanted packaging that stood out in a way that felt fun and considered, and that people would actually enjoy having on their counter.
Tins aren’t new, of course. In American coffee they’ve mostly been left to the lower-priced stuff on the grocery shelf. But metal blocks light, holds its shape and takes print beautifully, so we decided to bring the tin up to the specialty shelf and give it the care the coffee inside deserves.
Who designed it?
AOFP Studio, a design and packaging agency, designed the packaging and drew the illustrations, working closely with me on the system and the copy. The tins are direct-printed by our manufacturer in China.
From first vision to final product, how long did the design process take?
About six months from first sketches to tins on shelf. Production alone took two full sample runs. Our Pantone references wouldn’t hold on metal, so we respecified the palette in hex and matched from there, which pushed launch back by months. The illustrations came back clean on the first proof because they were drawn for direct print from the start. Then, because the tins ship from China, there is a long lead time from ready product until it’s on the shelf. I learned a lot about the shipping industry in this process. For example, did you know that if there’s not enough rain in Panama, then the Panama Canal can take fewer ships? I didn’t either, until we suffered a three-week delay waiting to go through the Canal.
Tell us about some of your favorite design details.
I love that everything is printed straight onto the tin, so the tin reads as one made thing.
I love the shape and size. We tried a number of different shapes and sizes. One of the reasons we’re working with a manufacturer in China is because that’s the only place this specific tin type can be made. We could have had circular tins made in America, but I didn’t like the shape and design of those types of tins.
The table line in each illustration is drawn very slightly curved. It’s the one loose line in an otherwise rigid system. This is done on purpose to make it feel a bit more hand-drawn.
The cupping score sits last and small on the back, since leading with it would be like opening a conversation with your SAT results.
I like how we’ve done the elevation and map of each origin for the coffee. All coffees say where they are from, but not many take the time to detail it out in this fun way.
How does the package design reflect the company’s overall branding and messaging?
We’re serious about coffee and not much else. The voice is dry and a little self-deprecating, closer to a New Yorker cartoon than a farm photograph. The illustrations show a small recurring cast, led by a Doberman with an unreasonably optimistic inner life, in ordinary New York scenes. Metal on its own can feel cold, and the drawings keep the object friendly. Premium coffee, no attitude. As I said above, we also really care about design and how things look. Everything we do, from our packaging to our merch to our website, is thoughtful and considered, but not too serious!
Are there key elements of the packaging meant to educate the consumer?
Yes. The back carries producer, variety, process and elevation, and goes further on process than most packaging, because process explains the cup better than anything else. Instead of a place name in small type, a hand-drawn map traces a dotted line from farm to New York beside a small elevation diagram. Everything sits in the same position on every tin, so by your third you know where to look. Tasting notes sit in a badge on the front.
Are any of the packaging materials recyclable or compostable?
The tin is metal, which is widely recyclable, but the real goal is that people keep it. Most specialty coffee bags are multi-layer laminates that hit the bin about three weeks after purchase. We drew the illustrations for a shelf and encourage customers to reuse their tins. For example, they serve as a nice flower pot for a few flowers on a shelf. We’re also planning plain refill bags so tins can be refilled.
Thank you!
Pick up a tin from Earnest Pursuit’s official website and follow them on Instagram and TikTok to get the latest on where to find EP in NYC cafes.
