Tea branding based on City of London liveries

It was tasked with creating the positioning, brand identity, graphics, structural packaging, stationery and website look and feel for the brand, which launches this week.

Echo was appointed without a pitch in late 2011 and briefed to ‘create a clear premium positioning that would bring to life Joe’s London roots in a fresh and distinctive way’, according to the consultancy.

The project was led by Echo’s designer and illustrator James Pearce and senior designer Christy Davies.

Davies says, ‘It’s very personal to Joe [Kinch, brand founder] and he wanted it to be tied in with the east London area where he’s based, with the importing history of the Docklands.’

The designs are inspired by traditional City of London Liveries and key trades, using hand-drawn typography and illustrations of characters such as the candlestick maker, butcher and baker.

A series of ‘Joe’s crests’ are used across the different variants in the range to differentiate the flavours, which include Earl Grey, English Breakfast, fruit, herbs and chocolate.

The packaging uses a cut-out on the side for shoppers to view the tea leaves; and features a bespoke illustrated map of London, with some adapted street names.

Davies adds, ‘Although it’s very much based on the idea of craft, we didn’t want to make it too busy and wanted to keep the traditional London theme, but in something that was clean and modern.’