Pancakes and ground coffee: Building Blueberry’s
The mission
Blueberry’s is a small cafe in Blackheath, South London. it operated by a different name and management, before the owner, chef Jerome Roelens decided to buy the small shop and put his plan to action. The new identity of the business revolves around blueberries, as well as Jerome’s trust and preference for fresh, environmentally-friendly ingredients, so we were called in to create a brand identity that would reflect this to the market.
The Output
We worked with Jerome to create his logo and visual identity, focusing on the continental flair of the small cafe, and developing assets with a rustic and craft aesthetic, that would accurately show Blueberry’s honest and hearty approach to their dishes and drinks. We also helped with their menus, designed with our whole brand identity in mind.
The Impact
In the end, we managed to create a brand that was both exciting and reflecting Jerome’s high standards of service, elegant but witty, appropriate for Blackheath’s quiet suburban ambience.
Client
Blueberry’s
Services
- Logo Design
- Typography
- Menu Design
- Signage & Exteriors

The Blueberry's Backstory
Blueberry’s is tenderly named after Jerome’s beloved dog, that sadly lost its life after a health challenge. In his wish to pay respects to his much adored pet, Jerome decided to build his business model around this, and came up with a fresh and exciting concept.
In Blueberry’s, people can taste a wide variety of blueberry-based dishes, among a wide selection of breakfast and lunch food, but that is not all; when people have any dish or drink that contains blueberries, a small chunk of what they pay goes to a pet hospital in London, to help with their effort.

The Slow-Food Experience
Before Blueberry’s came to be, there was a cafe with a different name in the location. Developing the brand was of crucial importance, as we needed to replace the branding and touchpoints of the previous space. We met Jerome in the cosy corner shop, taking in the beautiful architecture, the white details and the wooden floors — and he gave us his vision for the brand he wanted to build in Blueberry’s.
We got to see the clients’ experience, as they huddled into the shop in the crisp morning to get their coffee of the day. Mothers, dropping off their kids in the local daycare stopping for a hearty breakfast. Businesspeople taking their lunches, and a few young people getting more comfortable, pit-stopping with their laptop and a few notebooks.
Understanding the customer’s experience, is of course of massive importance to the design process. Blueberry’s was a slow-food experience for its patrons, not an assembly-line coffee dispenser.


The Visual Divide
The biggest challenge was to find a way to combine Blueberry’s Continental Cafe aesthetic and approach, with the playfulness and uniqueness of the blueberry-based recipes — and of course demonstrate Jerome’s own commitment to be environmentally friendly and work with the freshest and most natural ingredients available.
In the first round of our process, we provided two different visual directions. On the first, dubbed “Chic”, we focused on the timeless values of European coffee and food, bringing the spotlight on artisanality, customer delight and sophistication. Our second direction, “Excitement”, was a more bold approach, using the chef’s creativity to guide our visuals, bringing up a bright, exciting and playful way to make Blueberry’s a must-see experience in South London.

“This is beautiful. It brought back memories of being a young child, excited and full of wonder”
Solutions and approaches
With our client deciding to go for a more subtle and finessed approach, we developed a series of three logotypes that would fit the style and brand that he had envisioned to build. In the end, we decided to keep the more craft approach, using the round blueberry to serve as a frame for an elegant handwritten-style logotype.
Having built the visual style of the brand in a holistic way, it was very easy to go forward to the menu design, as most of the choices on typography and style had already been made.
