Why did I give a free branding to a coffee brand?
Why did I give a free branding to a coffee brand?
Part I — The first client.
A few weeks after arriving in Bali, I was driving around town on my scooter when something caught my eye.
A green khaki army jeep was parked in front of a coffee shop.
I don't know why, but I loved the scene.
The jeep.
The coffee shop.
The colors.
There was something about it.
So I stopped my scooter, took a picture, and looked at it for a moment.
Then a guy sitting inside the coffee shop looked at me and said:
“Come in.”
So I parked my scooter and walked inside.
He offered me a coffee.
And somehow, that coffee turned into a three-hour conversation about life.
His name was Sam.
I later remembered that when I first walked in, he had actually told me that I was his first customer.
He had opened the coffee shop that very day.
And somehow, his first customer became a regular.
I started coming almost every day.
I would work there with my laptop, drink coffee, meet people, and talk with Sam.
It slowly became my second home.
And Sam became a friend.
Part I — The first client.
A few weeks after arriving in Bali, I was driving around town on my scooter when something caught my eye.
A green khaki army jeep was parked in front of a coffee shop.
I don't know why, but I loved the scene.
The jeep.
The coffee shop.
The colors.
There was something about it.
So I stopped my scooter, took a picture, and looked at it for a moment.
Then a guy sitting inside the coffee shop looked at me and said:
“Come in.”
So I parked my scooter and walked inside.
He offered me a coffee.
And somehow, that coffee turned into a three-hour conversation about life.
His name was Sam.
I later remembered that when I first walked in, he had actually told me that I was his first customer.
He had opened the coffee shop that very day.
And somehow, his first customer became a regular.
I started coming almost every day.
I would work there with my laptop, drink coffee, meet people, and talk with Sam.
It slowly became my second home.
And Sam became a friend.
Part II — The Jeep became the brand.
The more time I spent there, the more I started noticing things.
The coffee was good.
The place had a beautiful energy.
But visually, it didn't really express what Sam was about.
And I kept coming back to the same thing:
That army jeep.
To me, it wasn't just an old vehicle parked outside.
It was the statement piece.
It had personality.
It had history.
It had a feeling.
So I told Sam:
“What if we bring the colors of the jeep inside?”
He liked the idea.
So I started helping him rethink little things around the coffee shop.
The colors.
The paint.
The details.
The atmosphere.
I wanted the place to feel more like him.
And the more I discovered about Sam, the more I understood why.
He wasn't just a coffee shop owner.
He was a grandfather of six.
He had coffee farms in Java.
He had created a coffee shop in Java where he taught blind people how to make coffee, giving them an opportunity to work and become independent.
He was also working with coffee farmers in Bali to promote organic and more natural ways of farming because he wanted to help heal the land.
At some point, Sam took me to see his farms.
He showed me where the coffee came from.
He taught me how to make coffee.
We went on adventures in that army jeep.
And somehow, the guy who had invited a random stranger inside for a coffee had become part of my life.
He became family.
Part II — The Jeep became the brand.
The more time I spent there, the more I started noticing things.
The coffee was good.
The place had a beautiful energy.
But visually, it didn't really express what Sam was about.
And I kept coming back to the same thing:
That army jeep.
To me, it wasn't just an old vehicle parked outside.
It was the statement piece.
It had personality.
It had history.
It had a feeling.
So I told Sam:
“What if we bring the colors of the jeep inside?”
He liked the idea.
So I started helping him rethink little things around the coffee shop.
The colors.
The paint.
The details.
The atmosphere.
I wanted the place to feel more like him.
And the more I discovered about Sam, the more I understood why.
He wasn't just a coffee shop owner.
He was a grandfather of six.
He had coffee farms in Java.
He had created a coffee shop in Java where he taught blind people how to make coffee, giving them an opportunity to work and become independent.
He was also working with coffee farmers in Bali to promote organic and more natural ways of farming because he wanted to help heal the land.
At some point, Sam took me to see his farms.
He showed me where the coffee came from.
He taught me how to make coffee.
We went on adventures in that army jeep.
And somehow, the guy who had invited a random stranger inside for a coffee had become part of my life.
He became family.
Part III — Using creativity for the better good.
About a year later, I started thinking about the brand again.
There was so much behind this little coffee shop.
The farms.
The farmers.
The work with blind people.
The connection to the land.
Sam's values.
And that crazy green army jeep that had started everything.
I felt that all of this deserved to be expressed properly.
So I decided to help him build the brand.
I created a website.
A menu.
Coffee packaging.
And a visual identity connected to the army jeep — the statement piece that had made me stop there in the first place.
Even when I moved to another part of Bali, I kept going back to see Sam.
By then, our relationship had gone far beyond coffee.
He helped me with my houses.
He helped me understand the land, find contractors, and navigate the beautiful chaos of building something in Bali.
He became almost like a godfather to Mana.
Looking back, I think what moved me most was that Sam was already doing something meaningful.
He was working with farmers, promoting more natural ways of growing coffee, creating opportunities for blind people, and building a business with a real sense of purpose.
And I had a skill that could help make that story more visible.
So it felt natural to put my creativity behind it.
I could help bring all these values together into something people could see, feel, and understand — from the coffee shop to the packaging, the website, the menu, and of course, that green army jeep.
For me, that was the real value of the project.
Not just making a coffee brand look better.
But using what I know how to do to help a good person, with a good idea, have a little more impact.
And maybe that's one of the most rewarding things creativity can do:
take something good that already exists, and help it travel further.
Part III — Using creativity for the better good.
About a year later, I started thinking about the brand again.
There was so much behind this little coffee shop.
The farms.
The farmers.
The work with blind people.
The connection to the land.
Sam's values.
And that crazy green army jeep that had started everything.
I felt that all of this deserved to be expressed properly.
So I decided to help him build the brand.
I created a website.
A menu.
Coffee packaging.
And a visual identity connected to the army jeep — the statement piece that had made me stop there in the first place.
Even when I moved to another part of Bali, I kept going back to see Sam.
By then, our relationship had gone far beyond coffee.
He helped me with my houses.
He helped me understand the land, find contractors, and navigate the beautiful chaos of building something in Bali.
He became almost like a godfather to Mana.
Looking back, I think what moved me most was that Sam was already doing something meaningful.
He was working with farmers, promoting more natural ways of growing coffee, creating opportunities for blind people, and building a business with a real sense of purpose.
And I had a skill that could help make that story more visible.
So it felt natural to put my creativity behind it.
I could help bring all these values together into something people could see, feel, and understand — from the coffee shop to the packaging, the website, the menu, and of course, that green army jeep.
For me, that was the real value of the project.
Not just making a coffee brand look better.
But using what I know how to do to help a good person, with a good idea, have a little more impact.
And maybe that's one of the most rewarding things creativity can do:
take something good that already exists, and help it travel further.
Hey, are we on the same vibe here?
If yes, let's connect, let's meet, let's co-create or just let see…