It’s a story of great love for coffee and design. In 2023, we were approached by an entrepreneur with Russian roots, who had long lived with his family on the island of Madeira in Portugal. During his time there, he had noticed that in their town of Funchal there were no modern coffee shops where you could try good beans and alternative brewing methods. So he decided to open such a place himself.

It was immediately obvious that the client was very involved with the project. The idea of the coffee shop was to brew exceptional coffee, as well as exclusive teas, and also to serve Japanese dessert mochi – colourful cakes made of rice dough with fruit and cream filling. The client also already had a name for the place – Motya Café – a reference to Japanese desserts, which are not served anywhere else in Madeira, and also to the name of the owner’s son – Matvey, or shortly – “Motya”.

In the identity we wanted to convey modernity and, at the same time, warmth and coziness of the family business. So we came up with the main element – an uneven letter “O”, referring us to the non-ideal shape of mochi. It lives in the logo, the font and is used on its own as a unique graphic element and pattern.

The color palette is made up of colors we associate with coffee – deep brown, black, white and – as a reference to the lush greenery of Madeira – dark green. The photographic style is also inspired by the place – sunlight, contrasting shadows and greenery.

The uneven “mochi print” is also transferred to cups and other packaging, scratch cards for regular customers, business cards and even tableware. The style also implies illustrations: crafty and continuing the idea of deliberate unevenness. And the simple menu consists of 3 vertical sheets enclosed in a cover-holder of contrasting brown color.

The work on the interior has been completed, and the café is already filled with fans of specialty coffee and original desserts.