Matt and Jake lived across the hall from me freshman year of college. They loved coffee and brewed it regularly in their dorm room with unique blends and strong flavors that wafted throughout our building. They approached me with the idea of starting a cold brew business on Dartmouth’s campus with the goal of offering quality and convenient brews to students with a delivery component. I said absolutely, and jump-started building the brand identity. I pulled inspiration from late 19th century soft drink branding and bottle design. Delivering our product on foot felt both genuine and local, and embracing those elements became paramount. Jake, Matt and I all lived on the top floor of Morton dorm, which soon emerged as the company name. We developed a cork bottling technique and I designed a set of logos to bring the name to life. The primary logo draws influence from original soda-pop design, with a circular structure and large script typography. The secondary logo evolved from the shape of Morton’s facade with a pitched roof and central window. Using the branding package I created, we developed and printed labels and constructed a website for brand awareness and online ordering. I designed various collateral materials and promotional items, including stamps, business cards, and stickers. We do not produce the coffee anymore, but we sold nearly every bottle we produced…and drank the rest of it ourselves.
