Rice Designing Memories for CaféCité

CaféCité was imagined as more than a café—it is a living archive of moments, where fragments of personal journeys find a place to rest, connect, and be remembered. It is a setting where the ordinary transforms into something meaningful, where stories are exchanged across tables, and where memories, much like the aroma of coffee, linger long after they are made.

To translate this vision, Rice developed a brand identity that operates like a memory box: a flexible grid system designed to feel both structured and open-ended. The grid recalls drawers filled with postcards, souvenirs, and fleeting impressions—objects that capture the intimacy of lived experience. This system allows the brand to adapt, expand, and rearrange itself in rhythm with the life of the café, creating a framework that feels personal yet endlessly evolving.

Within this structure, illustrations by Maxim Usik evoke the charm of travel mementos and postcard-like vignettes, reflecting the café’s role as a crossroads of people and stories. Each piece of illustration feels like a snapshot of time—an imprint of moments that might otherwise be forgotten—preserving the duality of individual memory and collective culture.

The masthead-inspired logo serves as an anchor, offering both presence and warmth. Echoing the editorial authority of a city publication, it positions CaféCité not just as a café but as a platform for stories—an everyday journal of community life, authored by those who gather within it.

Together, these elements create an identity that is dynamic, layered, and never finished—an open system that mirrors the shifting, unfinished rhythms of urban living. More than a destination for coffee, CaféCité is a stage where encounters become stories, stories become memories, and the city continues to inscribe its own collective narrative—one moment, one connection, one cup at a time.