ABOUT OUR LOGO

The mental work on our logo began more than a year ago, when the idea of roasting coffee wasn't much more than a casually pondered future. Early ideas for the logo also looked nothing like the one branding our website and products today. In fact, it wasn't until very recently that the inspiration for the logo came into full view.

One element of the logo that I had known for some time needed to be included was the font. At first, I didn't know if the font just needed to make an appearance on the website or be integrated into the actual logo, but once I thought about it just a little bit more, I realized it should be in the logo itself. What is this font? I'm so glad you asked.

In most every creative undertaking I've worked on, I attempt to draw inspiration from multiple areas of my life, not just those directly related to the project. So, I was very excited when I found out that my favorite band Wilco was releasing their own font. That's right... a band... with a font.

Wilco is known for straying into a variety of interesting areas, typically the result of collaborating with fans of their music or otherwise working with people whose work they find inspiring or fun. In this instance, the band ended up with their own font by working with the guy behind SimpleBits, someone who also knew lead singer Jeff Tweedy's son. Though in some ways, the inspiration for the font began years earlier when members of the band fell in love with a sign at a music shop. You can read more about the story of the font here and check out the sign that the font is built on, but for now I'll just say that after reading about the genesis of Wilco's font and seeing the sign that inspired it, I decided to try my hand at a bit of a facsimile for use in the logo for Cashmere Coffee Roasters.

It's not a perfect copy-and I didn't intend it to be-but in the end I had fun making it and love the connection to Wilco. Additionally, their font comes with instrument icons for each of the band members and so I also took inspiration from that to generate coffee icons that will be used in various ways on the site related to brewing science or in alternate logos.

Music is going to play a big part in the future work of Cashmere Coffee Roasters. Using Wilco's font was just the start.

-CCR