Douglas Hineline - UX Portfolio

The Grind Coffee Bar - Logo and Branding

Launched in February 2009

The Grind Coffee Bar in Redwood City makes slow-drip gourmet coffee an almost religious experience. With the very best in beans and service, a super creative atmosphere and the best coffee on the penn., The Grind is building a jittery and die hard set of fans.

Taking on a design project for fun is something that I love to do from time to time. After working as a front-end developer for very technically challenging projects, taking the time to work on something wholly different can be a convenient way to recharge the creative batteries. My neighbor and good friend, Scott Sapienza, approached me for help with the branding of his new coffee shop on the corner of El Camino and Jefferson in Redwood City. He had a well formed concept that would tie in the coffee shop experience with his other business next door, the Movie Groove.

Scott described to me a logo in which the steam from a cup of coffee would be represented as a twisted film strip. I immediately took to the idea and began sketching. Since I was on a deadline with my fulltime job, I opted to leverage some existing stock assets and produce a very simple but compelling vector design. In about a day and a half I had a completed logo and color guide for the new business.

A Special Thanks

I'd like to thank Scott Sapienza for using me as the test subject for his absolutely out of this world coffee and keeping me caffeinated all these months.