It’s National Coffee Day, and never before have we had so much to be thankful for. Over the past ten years, the number of independent roasters in the U.S. has absolutely exploded. Portland, Oregon alone was at one point home to nearly fifty (and that was in 2012).
Much like the similarly ballooning craft beer movement, the coffee wave(s) has brought good tidings for lovers of design. It seems that the well-caffeinated also have good aesthetic taste, as can be seen in the many awesome packaging designs we now find on shelves.
There is a fine line between merely good coffee packaging, and the truly superlative variety. We picked out 10 examples of the latter, from roasters everywhere from Santa Cruz, California to Springdale, Arkansas. In a nod to the information typically found on coffee packaging, we have included each roaster’s city of origin, along with an aesthetic summary in the form of three “design notes.” Enjoy.
1. Commonwealth


Origin: Denver, Colorado
Design notes: Aztec, typophile, horror vacui
2. Verve


Origin: Santa Cruz, California
Design notes: Frontier country, psychedelic, Louis XIV
3. Madcap


Origin: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Design notes: Silky, day-glo, contrasts
4. Supersonic


Origin: Berkeley, California
Design notes: Space age, fluorescence, parallelograms
5. Parlor


Origin: Brooklyn, New York
Design notes: Retro, floral, diagonal
6. Craft & Mason


Origin: Lansing, Michigan
Design notes: Rugged, unbleached, information
7. Onyx


Origin: Springdale, Arkansas
Design notes: Tattoo parlor, hand-drawn, all-caps
8. Publik


Origin: Salt Lake City, Utah
Design notes: Gothic, creamy, trapezoidal
9. Intelligentsia


Origin: Chicago, Illinois
Design notes: Rich, colors, pill box
10. No. Six Depot


Origin: West Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Design notes: Gilded, tea room, elegance