Michal Suday Design Group – Greg Coffee House

Greg café chain was established in 1994 and currently operates 90 branches nationally. The chain decided to rebrand as a response to an increase in competition and a decrease in brand relevance.The previous brand was designed when the chain was not yet established and still small. Therefore, our challenge was to create a brand story and visual concept for an existing chain that will allow us to differentiate Greg from other café chains.The first step was to remove the brand statement “very café”. Customer surveys indicated the statement was confusing and unclear. We changed it to the simple “Café Greg”.The new visual language tells a story of colonialism and exotic places. It creates an experience of travel in worlds of coffee and local food. This eclecticism is also conveyed through the integration of images from distant and fantastic locations with a contemporary typography that express different messages.The design concept is based on the chain’s three points of strength:International coffee brew: the Greg house coffee brew mixes coffee beans imported from a number of countries.Eclectic cuisine: Greg’s menu offers a wide variety of dishes drawing on different national traditions, from Asian Dim Sum, to Swiss gratin and Italian pizza. Greg is not only a café but a restaurant serving many types of food.Greg breakfast: the breakfast was rated first in customer surveys and is considered one of the chain’s main attractions.As part of the branding process we worked together with Eti Dentes studio on the new interior design. The branches are designed as contemporary urban lofts (reaching up to 400 sq.m.) with bare concrete walls, exposed building bricks and dark floors.The branches’ interior design is created from a range of graphic elements supported by unique production methods, such as printing on birch plates, bright perspex, canvasses and light boxes, as well as three dimensional typography which underwent a special manual ageing process. These elements were hung in each branch according to precise instructions to create a play of raised and sunk surfaces, light and shade, and different textures.