XOXO By Detour Coffee 💘☕️
Seth Book, 2025
As a rookie barista having proudly graduated from Nespresso, one of the things I looked forward to most about brewing espresso was the ability to try new roasts beyond the pods. Many times while travelling I would come across an independent coffee shop with unique offerings but no use for the product at home. In all honesty, most of the interest came from the intriguing graphics and packaging over due to my lack of espresso knowledge, but slowly developing my taste for coffee has spiked my engagement with the products even more.
I came across a perfect example of this at a local coffee house by Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver called Viva. Amongst a nice selection of coffee accessories, the display of beans from Hamilton’s Detour Coffee featured a captivating new package. Applied to the standard sleek light olive bags from the Ontario-based roasters was a playful sticker reading “XOXO”.
A bubbly composition with pastel pinks and purples featured love-themed elements in a cut & pasted execution, proposing the coffee within via vision-board. Certainly enough to make one pick up the product, the roast itself provided an added level of intrigue with a unique blend of fruity flavour notes lending itself to the artwork. While I don’t typically gravitate to this type of flavour profile in most beverages, the product and packaging worked together seamlessly to warrant a try in my books.
While I still am shooting about 10% on successful latte art, a nicely executed heart would have been nice for this one to tie it all together. Valentine’s Day was kicked off with this creative take on espresso, and I thoroughly enjoyed my venture outside the box of what I would normally brew. Hats off to Detour for this fun loving project to keep coffee shop shelves interesting! For more on Detour Coffee or XOXO, click here.
I was fortunate to contribute to a project in this space last year by coordinating the collaborative Rover Roast from Gradient Coffee, Mount Currie Coffee, and Topo Designs. This allowed for an inside look on how creative product launches come to life and the methods and strategies one can employ to drive engagement. Having the opportunity to design the label for the roast and conduct a photo & video shoot to create promotional content demonstrated how much can be done with just a fresh and intentional approach to roasting. For more on the Rover Roast, click here.
DISCLAIMER - This is not my work, I just really like it.