In April of 2024, I lost my job at Instacart. It took a month for me to get bored of sitting around, so I decided to fulfill a 10-year dream of mine—start a coffee brand.
The concept
Joe by Joe, at its purest, is an expression of myself. The brand colors are based off of colors I wear a lot; the illustrations are an evolution of all the doodling I’ve done throughout my life; and the tone mixes my brand of humor, sentimentality, and tendency to not take myself too seriously.
Specialty coffee often feels elevated, luxurious even—like you should feel fancy while drinking it. Or it can feel niche, like you need to be part of a certain crowd to really enjoy it. I set out to create a quality product that also felt fun, starting with the Cuppa Joe illustrations.
Cuppa Joe is a Halloween costume idea that I will execute some day. I must! But for now, he lives as vector art.
He gets into all kinds of messy situations. Could be his manic energy from drinking too much coffee. He’s the face of the brand. He’s iconic. And he looks like a giant coffee cup.
Launching the brand
After roasting my first 30 lbs of coffee, I had to sell it. So I texted everyone I knew to see if they wanted to be part of my very first ever batch of coffee. I sent out a few emails to hype them up.
Some of them knew how to pat their head and rub their belly. I’m so proud of them.
Next up, social strategy. My content included roast days, fun illustrations, and product info. I also ran ads to reach new customers. It kinda worked.
I also ran the world’s cheapest out of home campaign. With my rudimentary Illustrator skills and a taxpayer-funded printer at my local library, I posted flyers in neighborhoods around Portland.
The package design
I used a color scheme to show the level of roast for each type of coffee. Yellow is light, red is medium, and blue is dark. I included information about origin and process to help consumers understand how their coffee would taste. And on the back of each bag, I added coffee-inspired poetry. Each type of coffee featured a different poem.
How did I sell my coffee?
Very carefully.
That was a joke. Ha.
I started an e-commerce website and created automated emails for new customers. I tell people that the website is a minimalist design, but also I’m not a designer. I can’t make anything fancy. Here’s the homepage:
And the welcome email:
In-person events
As a small business selling a commodity in a saturated market (Portland is a coffee city), I realized quickly the best way to get in front of customers was to literally get in front of customers. So I invested in a few supplies and started tabling at events.
Last Thursday art walk
Regular pop-ups at a local bakery
(Someone spilled on my sign…sad face)
Flour Bloom Block Party
Featured drink at a poetry slam
And my biggest event:
Portland Night Market
And now the stats
(as of 4/9/25)
257 - bags of coffee sold
4 - number of wholesale accounts
2 - times I’ve been noticed by the media
1 - angry email threatening to report my flyers
32 - customers only interested in my stickers
I made it to the small screen!
“Oh thank god you have coffee”
-Uncaffeinated customer