A Tale of Modern Love: A Blend of Beans & Design
Posted on February 07 2022,
5 Steps to Create Modern Blend
So - look, RoosRoast has always been a combination of art, coffee & fun. And this is what the new Modern Blend is! It's a fun new design and it's a freakin' great coffee.
If you're wondering about the process - how we get from concept to bag of beans, read on. We're breaking down the screen printing part because, well- it's fun to look at!
[This one is particularly fun (and tricky) because we use double printing to get that retro pop art typography look.]
Step 1: Be Inspired
John was sitting at home, drinking coffee, of course, doodling in his journal and typing on the typewriter. The quietness was too much and John got a hankering for some music. Stepping over to his record player, John was immediately stuck by the Elektra record staring back at him. The vibrant colors, the geometric layout, the optical illusions... This got John thinking. If nothing new is ever created, and design cycles just come back around, isn't the pop art of the 1960s thoroughly modern now?
inspirational record
Original Drawing for the Modern Blend
Step 2: Design some logos!
RoosRoast's graphic designer, Laura Garbarz, takes John's initial concept and spins up some new ideas. There are technical considerations: how will it translate to screen printing? Every color in the design will require a different screen. Laura has to work backwards to figure out how each layer will impact the other layer. If you overlap them, they will create a new color - maybe one you don't want. We limit ourselves to two colors (two screens) because more would be, well, impractical for this many bags!
The design needs to be burned into the screen and Laura will custom mix the ink colors!
Laura's design board
Roger opens the screen
Roger opens the screen
Step 3: Meanwhile, what's the coffee going to taste like?
We roasted up a bunch of experiments and blind taste tested them!
We decided on a blend and then worked out the roasting details, tweaking it until we loved it!
John and Kath Roos coffee tasting
The coffee that makes up Modern Blend!
Tasting in progress
Step 4: Time to get these bags printed
Zoey carefully lines up 4 bags. Using the squeegee, Zoey presses ink onto the screen, over the artwork. The ink transfers onto the bag and Zoey lays out the bags to dry. Once the bags are dry, it's time for round two with the red ink! Zoey again lines up the bags, even more carefully this time. This is the trickiest part, because she needs to have the red design line-up perfectly over the white. If they overlap it will ruin the design.
Zoey lines up the bags
First layer is printed
First layer looks great
Custom ink mixed
Second layer being printed
Ready to dry!
Step 5: Photoshoot, pose.
The Modern Blend is ready to go!
No two bags are exactly the same and that's what we love about it. Come enjoy the artful nuance, variation and experimentation of the screen printing process.
It's delicious and beautiful! Just the way we love our coffee.