Work
Year
Year
2026
2026
Client
Client
Splash Theory
Splash Theory
Good coffee. Terrible posture. No regrets.
Duration
Duration
4 months
4 months
Location
Location
Melbourne, AU
Melbourne, AU
Industry
Industry
Food & Beverage
Food & Beverage
Deliverables
Deliverables
Brand identity, product design, cup packaging, illustration system, visual identity, and brand guidelines.
Brand identity, product design, cup packaging, illustration system, visual identity, and brand guidelines.
Melt Studio is a specialty coffee brand built around the idea that a great cup should make you slow down until you practically dissolve into the moment. What started as a single espresso counter in a converted garage grew into a full product and visual identity — warm, slightly unhinged and designed for people who take their coffee seriously but themselves less so.
Melt Studio is a specialty coffee brand built around the idea that a great cup should make you slow down until you practically dissolve into the moment. What started as a single espresso counter in a converted garage grew into a full product and visual identity — warm, slightly unhinged and designed for people who take their coffee seriously but themselves less so.
Designing a Coffee Brand Identity Where the Cup Is the Campaign and the Mascot Is Already Melting
Designing a Coffee Brand Identity Where the Cup Is the Campaign and the Mascot Is Already Melting
Melt Studio was built on a very specific feeling: the one that happens about four minutes into a really good coffee, when your shoulders drop, your jaw unclenches and you stop pretending you are fine. The brand was designed to name that feeling, own it and put it on a cup. The brief was to create a visual identity that was immediately recognizable at counter level and shareable at phone level. Every design decision was made with both contexts in mind — the cup needed to hold up in a takeaway window at 7am and on an Instagram grid at the same time.
Melt Studio was built on a very specific feeling: the one that happens about four minutes into a really good coffee, when your shoulders drop, your jaw unclenches and you stop pretending you are fine. The brand was designed to name that feeling, own it and put it on a cup. The brief was to create a visual identity that was immediately recognizable at counter level and shareable at phone level. Every design decision was made with both contexts in mind — the cup needed to hold up in a takeaway window at 7am and on an Instagram grid at the same time.
The orange was chosen for its appetite-stimulating energy and its distance from the brown and black palette that dominates specialty coffee branding. Against it, the white cup reads with maximum contrast, making the typography and mascot pop without any additional graphic complexity. The two-color type system — black for the primary word, a rotating accent color for the secondary — was designed to be flexible across seasonal cups while maintaining a consistent typographic voice. Each new colorway is a new cup. The character and the system stay the same.
The orange was chosen for its appetite-stimulating energy and its distance from the brown and black palette that dominates specialty coffee branding. Against it, the white cup reads with maximum contrast, making the typography and mascot pop without any additional graphic complexity. The two-color type system — black for the primary word, a rotating accent color for the secondary — was designed to be flexible across seasonal cups while maintaining a consistent typographic voice. Each new colorway is a new cup. The character and the system stay the same.
Building a Melting Mascot That Became the Brand's Most Recognisable Asset Before the Coffee Did
Building a Melting Mascot That Became the Brand's Most Recognisable Asset Before the Coffee Did
The Melt mascot — a simplified smiley face in mid-dissolution, pooling softly at the base of the cup — was developed as a visual metaphor for the brand's entire proposition. It is happy. It is losing its shape. It does not appear to mind. That emotional register — content, slightly undone, completely at ease — is precisely the state a great coffee is supposed to produce. The character was drawn with deliberate imprecision: slightly asymmetric, pooling unevenly, more felt than rendered. It carries the warmth of something drawn by hand, which keeps the brand from feeling like a chain even as it scales.
The Melt mascot — a simplified smiley face in mid-dissolution, pooling softly at the base of the cup — was developed as a visual metaphor for the brand's entire proposition. It is happy. It is losing its shape. It does not appear to mind. That emotional register — content, slightly undone, completely at ease — is precisely the state a great coffee is supposed to produce. The character was drawn with deliberate imprecision: slightly asymmetric, pooling unevenly, more felt than rendered. It carries the warmth of something drawn by hand, which keeps the brand from feeling like a chain even as it scales.
The Melt mascot — a simplified smiley face in mid-dissolution, pooling softly at the base of the cup — was developed as a visual metaphor for the brand's entire proposition. It is happy. It is losing its shape. It does not appear to mind. That emotional register — content, slightly undone, completely at ease — is precisely the state a great coffee is supposed to produce. The character was drawn with deliberate imprecision: slightly asymmetric, pooling unevenly, more felt than rendered. It carries the warmth of something drawn by hand, which keeps the brand from feeling like a chain even as it scales.
The stacked cup composition — two cups nested at slightly different heights, mascot visible at the base of the lower one — was developed as the primary product presentation format. It communicates scale options, shows the system working as a family and creates a more interesting visual than a single cup alone. The cup design was engineered to work as a flat wrap before construction and as a three-dimensional object in the hand. The typography was set large enough to read from across a counter, and the mascot was positioned low enough to be discovered rather than announced — a detail that rewards the person holding the cup rather than the person passing by.
The stacked cup composition — two cups nested at slightly different heights, mascot visible at the base of the lower one — was developed as the primary product presentation format. It communicates scale options, shows the system working as a family and creates a more interesting visual than a single cup alone. The cup design was engineered to work as a flat wrap before construction and as a three-dimensional object in the hand. The typography was set large enough to read from across a counter, and the mascot was positioned low enough to be discovered rather than announced — a detail that rewards the person holding the cup rather than the person passing by.
The stacked cup composition — two cups nested at slightly different heights, mascot visible at the base of the lower one — was developed as the primary product presentation format. It communicates scale options, shows the system working as a family and creates a more interesting visual than a single cup alone. The cup design was engineered to work as a flat wrap before construction and as a three-dimensional object in the hand. The typography was set large enough to read from across a counter, and the mascot was positioned low enough to be discovered rather than announced — a detail that rewards the person holding the cup rather than the person passing by.
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Feedback
“A pleasure to work with from day one. The process felt simple, well structured, and the quality of the final work really stood out.”
Sam Okafor
Founder, Melt Studio
“A pleasure to work with from day one. The process felt simple, well structured, and the quality of the final work really stood out.”
Sam Okafor
Founder, Melt Studio
•
Feedback
“A pleasure to work with from day one. The process felt simple, well structured, and the quality of the final work really stood out.”
Sam Okafor
Founder, Melt Studio
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