Concept · Coffee roaster
Roasted the morning it ships
A small-batch roaster selling bags and subscriptions. The freshness claim is the whole product, so the design had to make it visible rather than state it.
The premise
A roaster shipping direct to customers, competing with supermarket coffee on one axis: how recently it was roasted.
The problem
Every roaster says 'freshly roasted'. The phrase has been worn smooth. Saying it louder does not help — the claim has to become something a visitor can see and check, or it reads as marketing copy like everyone else's.
The approach
Roast date as a structural element
The date is not a line in the product description; it is part of how each coffee is presented, alongside origin and process. Once it sits at that level, the subscription pitch stops being a discount offer and becomes a logistics argument — the only way to always have coffee this fresh is to have it sent.
A serif with a real voice
Instrument Serif has the editorial quality the subject wants, and it is distinctive enough that the page does not read as another minimal shop template.
Rust that had to darken
The obvious accent for the palette measured 4.87:1 against its own ink — under the readable floor. Darkening it to #6B351D kept the character and cleared the bar. This is the kind of thing that only shows up if you measure the rendered page rather than trusting the swatch.
Subscription framed as a cadence
'Every other Monday' rather than 'save 10%'. The former describes a habit, which is what a subscription actually is; the latter competes on price, which a small roaster loses.
What I would want before building it for real
Of the six, this is the one whose argument depends most on real operational data. Without genuine roast dates flowing into the page, the whole structure is theatre.
This is a concept, not client work. Kettle & Co is not a real business. The site was designed and built end to end to work through a specific problem, and it is shown here as design thinking rather than as a job I was hired to do.