Client: GHC ✴ 2019
Gorilla Highlands Coffee is a social enterprise that dedicates 100% of its profits from the production and sale of organic coffee in Uganda to social projects in that country.
The organization emerged in 2015 in Kisoro, a small rural area at the foot of the Mufumbiro Mountains, home to the last silverback gorillas, hence its name.
This company is founded on a business model that allows everyone involved to live with dignity and in harmony with the environment, while enhancing community growth and development. In the words of the GHC team, «doing the right thing is paying farmers fairly, with dignity, recognizing the value of their work; it is producing coffee sustainably, allowing people and communities to grow and develop without cost to the environment, investing back into the land and people, making them capable, self-sufficient and equipped with the tools to succeed.»
It markets 4 different varieties of coffee produced in different areas of the region. The most spectacular thing is that these 4 geographical areas are completely different from each other in terms of orography and ecosystem: Virunga Region, Lake Bunyonki, Echuya Forest y Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. It seemed essential to us to capture these special characteristics in the packaging, and that it would take us directly to these fascinating environments of the African country.
GHC, the coffee that cares
We decided to bring the African landscape to the cans in the form of complete labels along the entire perimeter of the cans. The illustrations that compose them have no cut, that is, when turning the can, the landscape continues as if it were a 360º panoramic view.
To transfer this panoramic effect to the coffee bags, we decided to create cardboard sashes that could be produced and assembled in a very simple way, and that also allowed the illustration to be continuous along all sides of the bag, instead of using a label or sticker on the front and back sides of the bag. In this way, all types of packaging have that 360º landscape experience in common, reinforcing the brand image and allowing them all to follow the same concept. In addition, all the materials used are 100% recyclable.
Both the typographic part and the composition reflect in a different way the more traditional part of coffee production, as opposed to the type of illustration and colors. For this purpose, serif typefaces and a more delicate and timeless organization were used. The rest of the image was completed with graphic elements that reinforce the brand and help to unify the whole. As a result, a very powerful and visually attractive image has been obtained for the buyer, whose aesthetics distance it from its direct competitors and makes us understand the type of product it contains, taking us from the first glance to the origins of that coffee.
