Grid Coffee, founded in Beijing, is an offline chain brand that focuses on specialty coffee. As a single-origin coffee brand, it is a relatively innovative positioning. Within the Grid Coffee team, a professional, rigorous and purely rational attitude is a consensus for internal development. Grid believes that, looking towards the future, perhaps returning to the basics and focusing on the coffee that the brand understands, using the highest quality products to meet the daily needs of most people, is something worth adhering to and has long-term value.
Currently, there is no single-origin (SOE) chain coffee brand on the market, but people are not unfamiliar with this concept. Grid Coffee saw this opportunity and market, and only sells single-origin coffee instead of the more common blending method. Their products are also crafted to be more refined.
Grid Coffee only offers the most classic coffee categories: black coffee and milk coffee. This is different from the mainstream practice on the market. To cater to consumers, many coffee brands will innovate by blending coffee with tea, fruit, and other ingredients. “Coffee should not be boundaryless, it should be more professional,” said Grid.
“A coffee bean with a distinctive personality” is the flavor aesthetic pursued by Grid Coffee. Grid not only strictly controls the selection of green coffee beans, but also ensures that each coffee bean meets the SCA cupping standard of 84 points or above. They also use professionally customized roasting curves to stimulate the flavor potential of the beans.
2022年8月Grid Coffee在北京三里屯太古里开出「The Black Spot」的黑色快闪咖啡车，在第一个48小时就卖出1068杯黑咖啡，而Grid Coffee望京中国锦店作为Grid Coffee在日常里的形态，Gird回归品牌绿色（PANTONE 5753 C ），方格是整体设计元素的重要组成。
In August 2022, Grid Coffee opened “The Black Spot”, a black flash coffee truck in Beijing’s Sanlitun Taikoo Li. In the first 48 hours, they sold 1,068 cups of black coffee. As Grid Coffee’s daily form, the Grid Coffee China Jin store in Wangjing returns to the brand’s green color (PANTONE 5753 C), and the grid is an important element of the overall design.
When we first contacted Grid Coffee, it was like getting to know a lover and exploring each other’s preferences. We were amazed by the excellent venue conditions – a 70 square meter space with a building height of 14 meters, equivalent to a four-story box.
Through continuous exploration with the Grid Coffee team, we started from the brand’s attitude and philosophy and developed a spatial narrative around the brand’s logo. Using 300×300 as the benchmark scale of the space, we defined the scale of the space, bar, and props. It is the order of space and also reflects Grid Coffee’s rigorous attitude towards coffee.
In this relaxed moment of buying coffee, we hope that Grid Coffee is a place that many people will remember, a place where you can quickly pick up a cup of coffee or sit and linger, get lost in thought, or daydream.
As with Grid’s brand keywords “pure,” “professional,” and “fast,” the space is based on rational and precise considerations. Das Lab placed the focus and center of the space on the core operational bar area. We carefully considered the bar based on the working habits of the baristas and the equipment’s rigid conditions. This resulted in the creation of an extremely professional and efficient bar. We also incorporated a grid lightbox into the ceiling to create a brand visual that would embed in consumers’ memories.
In terms of props, Das Lab focused on expressing materials in their most authentic and pure form. The product display shelves were composed of a certain scale and modular design. The bottom of each display shelf had a brand Grid “G” magnet embedded, which served as both a detail of the brand and props and allowed for a more orderly arrangement of the shelves. The freely detachable modules serve to display products in various styles and stimulate consumer transactions.
For tables and booths, Das Lab used structural disassembly and orderly recombination to increase the overall richness and detail of the space in a “fusion” manner. This is meant to express an emotional experience and visual richness beyond just a cup of coffee.
We don’t want to use too many words to describe the space’s luxury. We hope to express Das Lab’s understanding of the product, market insight, and brand interpretation.
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