Halvard Roasters
Mark · packaging
A roastery that ships six single origins. The mark is one arc — the curve of a bean and the curve of a pour, drawn once and reused as the bag seal.
Identity system5 weeks
MARKMAKER is a five-person brand studio on Ferrous Row. Drag the turntable: this mark is built in three dimensions, so it holds up in steel, on a shopfront and at sixteen pixels.
Five things we do. Each one is quoted as a whole job, not as an hourly rate, and every price below includes two rounds of revision and the production files.
One mark, drawn from scratch and cut in vector: primary lockup, stacked lockup, monogram, and a one-colour version that still reads at 16 pixels. Delivered as SVG, EPS, PDF and PNG with a clear-space rule.
The mark plus everything around it: type pairing with licences listed, colour set in RGB, CMYK and Pantone-equivalent, grid, photography direction, icon set of twelve, stationery, social templates and a slide deck master.
A written book your printer, your developer and your next hire can all follow: rules, misuse examples, minimum sizes, file map and a contact page. Published as a tagged PDF and as a single-page website you can send by link.
Twenty-five candidate names in three territories, narrowed to five with you, then a plain-language screen on each: domain, common spellings, obvious clashes in your category. Legal clearance stays with your lawyer — we hand over the shortlist.
Structure, front panel, back panel and the small legal block nobody likes doing. We draw the dielines, run one press check with your printer and hand over print-ready artwork per SKU.
Before a logo is a logo it is a line under tension. This is a live two-link arm swinging in the panel below: the tip writes, the trail fades, and the anchors and handles are the same ones a vector editor would give you.
We start every mark with movement, not with a grid. If the gesture is dead on paper it will be dead in steel.
One frame of that motion is frozen and traced with as few anchors as possible. Most of our marks end up under twelve points.
Handles are set to horizontal and vertical wherever the eye expects it. This is the difference between a mark that prints clean and one that wobbles at small sizes.
The flat contour is extruded and milled, like the mark turning in the hero. A shape that survives rotation survives a shopfront.
You see work every Thursday. Nothing goes quiet for a fortnight and then arrives as a surprise deck — that is the single thing clients tell us they were most afraid of.
Ninety minutes, you and up to three of your people. We ask what you sell, who says no to you, and what you cannot change.
Three written directions, each a paragraph and a mood board. You kill two. We never start drawing before this is signed.
Curves, anchors, the whole panel above. You get the mark in three sizes and one colour, on paper, before any colour work.
Type, colour, grid, icons, templates. Everything is tested on the three real items you use most — usually invoice, signage, phone.
The guidelines book. Written in plain sentences so a printer with no design training can follow it at eleven at night.
One hour on a call, a folder you own outright, and six months of answering your team's questions by email at no charge.
These are invented brands made to show the range of the studio: the marks, the naming logic and the systems are ours, the companies do not exist.
A roastery that ships six single origins. The mark is one arc — the curve of a bean and the curve of a pour, drawn once and reused as the bag seal.
Eleven jetties, one alphabet. The mark doubles as an arrow, so the same shape works as a logo on the hull and as a direction sign on the pier.
Named from a shortlist of twenty-five, then drawn as two lenses that overlap to make a third shape. Works embossed on a case at 9 mm.
A market stall that grew into four shops. Hand-cut mark, one typeface, chalk-board rules so staff can write the price boards without breaking the brand.
Meet Bolt, the studio's own character. Scroll this section and he walks the delivery line past you — each panel he passes is one thing we hand over at the end of a build. Stop scrolling and he stops, breathes, and waits.
We started in 2015 above a sign shop, which is where the habit of cutting marks in metal came from. We are deliberately small: the person who draws your mark is the person who answers your email two years later.
Everything is quoted as a fixed job. We do not sell retainers, we do not run ad campaigns, and we will tell you when what you actually need is a better website rather than a new logo.
“If a mark needs a paragraph of explanation, it is not finished. We keep cutting until the thing explains itself across a room.”
Fourteen years drawing marks, four of them in signage. Runs the listening session and draws every primary mark that leaves the studio.
Builds the scaffolding: type pairing, grid, colour maths, and the templates your team will actually use on a Monday morning.
Writes the names, the guideline book and the sentence you put under your logo. Former copywriter for a chain of hardware stores.
Takes it to the press. Dielines, press checks, ink limits, and the awkward call to the printer when a Pantone is out of stock.
“We had four logos in six years and none of them survived a shop sign. This one was cut in aluminium on week five and it still looks right. The Thursday updates meant I never had to chase anyone.”
“They talked us out of the expensive package. We bought the mark and the guidelines only, and Otto still spent an afternoon setting up our invoice template. That is why we came back for packaging.”
“The naming round was the surprise. Twenty-five real candidates, not five and a shrug, and Mira had already checked the domains. We picked on day nine.”
The milling machine is in the back room and we will show you it running. Come without an appointment on Thursday afternoons — that is when the coffee is on.
| Monday | 09:00 – 18:00 |
| Tuesday | 09:00 – 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:00 – 18:00 |
| Thursday | 09:00 – 18:00 |
| Friday | 09:00 – 16:00 |
| Saturday | By appointment |
| Sunday | Closed |
Eight fields. If it turns out you need something cheaper than what you picked, we will say so in the reply.