A collectible local food-and-drink guide, hospitality branding and website design to drive footfall across the North West
The brief:
Cafe Culture guidebook, branding & website design
Cafe Culture was a family-owned start-up with a clear mission: encourage more people to visit independent tea rooms, cafés and restaurants across the North West.
The idea needed to feel credible from day one. Something venues would be proud to stock and customers would genuinely want to buy and keep. Our role was to deliver the complete design package: brand identity, website design and a beautifully designed printed guidebook driven by strong photography and confident typography.
The concept
Cafe Culture worked as a simple, venue-friendly model:
- participating venues would buy the books from Cafe Culture.
- venues would then sell the guidebooks to their customers.
- the back of the book included multiple 10% off vouchers, encouraging people to explore and revisit.
From a design perspective, the goal was to create something that felt more like an editorial travel companion than a discount booklet, while still keeping the voucher section practical and easy to use in-venue.
Guidebook design
We designed the guidebook as an A5 printed publication, chosen for its portability and everyday usefulness.
We approached the layout with an editorial mindset – clear structure, strong typographic hierarchy and plenty of breathing space. Photography was central to the experience, giving each venue its own character and helping readers discover new favourites across the region.
Print details
We PUR bound the publication to ensure it could withstand repeated use and deliver a durable finish. We designed the voucher pages with perforations, allowing customers to tear them out cleanly without damaging the rest of the book.
Brand identity and logo design
Cafe Culture needed an identity that felt instantly recognisable, friendly and full of personality.
The logo mark was designed as a combination of three elements – capturing the variety of places the guide celebrated:
- a tea leaf
- a cake
- a fish (a nod to the classic fish-and-chip shop)
Together, the symbol became a distinctive shorthand for the wider idea: local food, local places and local discovery.
Website design
Alongside print, we created a website design that extended the brand into a digital experience and supported the business model.
The site featured a location map, making it easy for users to explore venues geographically and plan visits. It also enabled customers to buy the guidebook online, offering a direct route to purchase beyond in-venue sales and supporting discovery for visitors planning ahead.
The result
Cafe Culture launched with a complete brand and product experience: a distinctive identity, a beautifully designed A5 PUR-bound guidebook with perforated vouchers and a website designed to support discovery through a location map and online purchase.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit the hospitality sector hard and the business was effectively forced to shut down. Even so, the work remains a strong example of how thoughtful branding, editorial design and photography can elevate a simple idea into something venues would be proud to stock and customers would be happy to keep.
