Bronze Packaging Design · 2026
Cafe Guardiao Packaging Redesign
by Tipz
- A' Design Award 2026 Bronze Winner in Packaging Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- CLIENT: Cooabriel
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 6,352
- Verification code E85D4D771A · Verify this award
About Cafe Guardiao Packaging Redesign
Cafe Guardiao is a packaging design for a premium roasted and ground coffee produced by a Brazilian cooperative. The visual identity is anchored by an archangel illustration, drawn in an engraving style, with protective wings as the dominant graphic element. Bold typography creates a clear visual hierarchy at the point of sale. A label band states the roast level, the cooperative origin, and the 100 percent pure conilon content. Flexographic printing on kraft and matte laminated substrates gives the package a matte finish and a tactile surface.
Tipz's Cafe Guardiao Packaging Redesign exemplifies how contemporary packaging design serves as nexus point where cultural heritage, agricultural cooperation narratives, material innovation, and sophisticated visual communication converge to transform utilitarian container into cultural artifact and brand ambassador. The design engages longstanding traditions of coffee packaging graphics while demonstrating pronounced contemporary sensibility through its chromatic boldness, geometric clarity, and material refinement, suggesting dialogue with both historical precedents in commodity packaging and current movements toward premium craft positioning within everyday consumable categories. The compositional achievement lies substantially in the chromatic strategy, which deploys deep oceanic teal against warm precious-metal gold to create compelling shelf differentiation while maintaining family resemblance through shared typographic treatment, ornamental vocabulary, and botanical illustration language, this chromatic bifurcation permitting product line extension or variant indication while preserving immediate brand recognition, a sophisticated solution to the perennial packaging challenge of unity-within-variety. Technical execution demonstrates considerable facility across multiple dimensions: the typography scales confidently without losing legibility, the radial ornamental devices provide strong focal anchors without overwhelming the composition, the botanical illustrations render complex organic forms with linear economy suggesting both scientific botanical plate traditions and contemporary illustration reduction strategies, and the material specification—apparent metallic laminate with pronounced surface animation—elevates perceived value while maintaining practical functionality for flexible packaging applications including moisture barrier, light protection, and efficient shipping volume. The botanical elements warrant particular attention as they ground the product firmly in agricultural reality, depicting coffee plant morphology with sufficient accuracy to function as gentle educational gesture while serving decorative and compositional purposes, these illustrations creating textural richness in lower zones that balances the geometric simplicity of upper ornamental elements, the dual visual languages of geometric and organic, modern and natural, working in productive tension. Color temperature relationships prove equally sophisticated: the cool deep teal reads simultaneously as oceanic depth and twilight mystery, coding freshness, premium quality, and artisanal seriousness, while the warm burnished gold suggests tradition, heritage, sunlight, ripeness, and accessible warmth, this pairing activating associations with both contemporary specialty coffee culture and nostalgic commodity packaging of earlier eras, particularly mid-century grocery aesthetics that employed rich saturated hues and bold graphic simplification. The radial burst motifs crowning each package invite multiple readings: as solar reference connecting coffee cultivation to equatorial agriculture, as energetic metaphor for caffeine effect and morning awakening ritual, as Art Deco ornamental quotation suggesting Jazz Age sophistication and geometric modernism, or as simple attention-commanding device deploying radial symmetry's inherent visual magnetism, the central numeral presumably indicating blend number or product variant within larger system. The presentation choice—one package elevated on minimal white plinth while its companion rests at ground level—introduces welcome dynamism into what could otherwise read as static symmetrical arrangement, this curatorial intervention suggesting thoughtful brand stewardship that understands photography and display as extension of design thinking rather than mere documentation. What meanings might these chromatic choices and botanical details invite contemplation of regarding the geographic and human origins of the coffee within, and how does material luxury in packaging navigate the complex semiotics of agricultural labor and consumer pleasure?
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Cafe Guardiao is a premium roasted and ground coffee packaging redesign for Cooabriel, the largest conilon coffee cooperative in Latin America. The new identity, anchored by the archangel Sao Gabriel and its protective wings, communicates purity, origin, and quality. The matte finish and bold typography ensure standout shelf presence, differentiating the brand from mass-market competitors.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- This package is 110 mm wide, 60 mm deep, and 220 mm tall.
- Tags
- coffee packaging, conilon coffee, cooperative branding, product redesign, brand repositioning, matte packaging, food packaging, Brazilian design, premium packaging, point of sale
- Production Technology
- The packaging was developed through a structured brand strategy process followed by visual identity design. Flexographic printing on kraft and matte laminated substrates was employed to achieve the premium matte finish. Illustration work combined engraving-style line art with typographic hierarchy, producing tactile and visual differentiation at the point of sale.
- Design Challenge
- The central challenge was repositioning a coffee variety historically linked to low quality. Conilon carries market stigma even in its producing region, and a prior launch had failed, leaving negative brand memory among buyers. The redesign required a complete visual break from that history while remaining authentic to its cooperative origin. Mass-market shelf pressure demanded bold differentiation. Matte lamination and substrate selection required sampling to ensure print fidelity within costs.
- Project Duration
- The project was developed in Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil. The new packaging was launched in January 2025.
- Operation Flow
- The packaging communicates directly at the point of sale, guiding the consumer through a clear visual hierarchy: the archangel illustration creates an immediate emotional connection, the bold product name confirms variant identity, and the label band delivers key quality claims - 100% pure conilon, cooperative origin, and roast level. The matte finish invites physical interaction, reinforcing a premium tactile experience. The design rewards closer inspection, building trust and purchase intent progressively.
- Research
- Applied qualitative research. Objective: identify barriers to purchase intent for Conilon coffee and define a visual positioning capable of sustaining a premium price. Method: immersion at the Cooabriel cooperative, shelf audits in supermarkets across Greater Vitória, and interviews with directors, cuppers, and retail partners. Results: the Traditional line increased 45 percent in sales volume, and Extra Forte increased 17 percent. The new packaging enabled access to retail chains previously closed to the brand.
- Inspiration
- The inspiration emerged from a deep immersion in the cooperative and its values. The archangel concept - a guardian watching over the beans, the farmers, and the consumer - became the brand soul. Conilon coffee carries historical stigma; the design sought to overcome this through visual nobility, celebrating the unique characteristics of this 100 percent pure Brazilian coffee variety.
Colors of Cafe Guardiao Packaging Redesign
Design Interview about Cafe Guardiao Packaging Redesign
The inspiration emerged from a deep immersion in the cooperative and its values. The starting point was the name of the city itself: São Gabriel da Palha. Saint Gabriel is an archangel, a guardian. From that single observation, a whole system of meaning unfolded: the concept of a guardian watching over the beans, the farmers, and the consumer became the soul of the brand. Conilon coffee carries a historical stigma of low quality; the design sought to overcome this through visual nobility, celebrating the unique characteristics of this 100 percent pure and genuinely Brazilian coffee variety.
The main focus was repositioning. The Guardião line already existed but carried negative brand memory from a prior launch that had not worked. We needed a complete visual break from that history while remaining authentic to the cooperative origin. We wanted the packaging to open doors to retail chains that had previously been closed to the brand, and to communicate premium quality convincingly at the point of sale, alongside competitors with far greater communication investment.
The project has already delivered concrete results: revenue doubled. Café Guardião is now ready to take flight across Brazil and beyond.
The full process, from the initial immersion at the cooperative through final production approval, took several months. The concept phase, where the system of meaning around the archangel consolidated, was the most intensive. Once the central idea was established, the visual development and material and finishing tests followed in a more linear way.
The project was commissioned by Cooabriel, the world's largest conilon coffee cooperative, based in São Gabriel da Palha, Espírito Santo. The cooperative needed a redesign capable of reversing a negative track record and enabling entry into larger retail chains. From that brief, the immersion process revealed the direction: the name of the city contained the whole idea. Saint Gabriel, the guardian archangel, became the central concept not by creative imposition, but because it was the most truthful and coherent response to the product's origin.
The packaging is in production and being sold by Cooabriel itself, through Indústria Café Guardião. The product is available in the Tradicional and Extra Forte lines, in 250g and 500g formats, and has been expanding its presence in retail chains and food service accounts in the Greater Vitória region and across the north and northwest of Espírito Santo.
The combination of the strategic challenge and the human potential behind the product. This was not just about redesigning a package; it was about repositioning a historically undervalued coffee variety while strengthening the livelihoods of thousands of farming families. When a brief carries that weight, design stops being aesthetic and becomes an argument. That is exactly the kind of work that drives us most at Tipz.
More than direct packaging design references, what influences our work is a repertoire accumulated over time. The tradition of engraving-style illustration and the power of expressive typography were present in the process. Nothing too specific or academic; it is more about absorbing a great deal and letting that show naturally in the decisions.
The end consumer is the coffee buyer in supermarkets across Espírito Santo and neighboring states, with a profile that values origin, quality, and authenticity. But the project also had an equally critical intermediary target: the retail chain buyers who had previously refused to stock the product on their shelves. The packaging needed to convince both audiences simultaneously, and the results proved it did.
Most coffee packaging works with generic elements of origin and quality: beans, mountains, seals. Guardião took the opposite path: it started from a specific and truthful cultural element, the archangel Saint Gabriel as guardian of the city and the cooperative, and built a coherent visual system where every decision carries meaning. The engraving-style illustration of the archangel with open wings is not ornament; it is the entire concept translated into image. The result is packaging that stands out on the shelf not by shouting, but by having a distinct identity.
The name Guardião already existed. This was a packaging redesign.
The process began in an analog way: brainstorming sessions, field research on supermarket shelves, and immersion at the cooperative. From there, the visual development was led by designer Mateus Montenegro using the Adobe suite.
The central engraving-style illustration of the archangel with open wings. It is not decoration applied over a functional package; it is the concept itself. The guardian watching over the beans, the farmers, and the consumer is literally present on the main face of the packaging, creating an immediate emotional connection before any text is read. On a shelf dominated by visual commodities, that symbolic presence is what sets the product apart at first glance.
The project was developed by Tipz with a multidisciplinary team. The immersion and strategic planning involved Mariana Kawase and Lygia Bellotti. Creative direction was led by myself, Ricardo Pessanha, and visual execution by designer Mateus Montenegro, a long-time creative partner with an extensive portfolio in packaging design. Graphic production involved specialized suppliers in premium finishing, with whom we worked closely to validate material samples.
Yes. We conducted market research and competitor analysis directly on supermarket shelves. That contact with the real purchase environment was decisive in understanding what needed to happen at the point of sale and how the packaging should behave alongside competitors.
The central challenge was repositioning a coffee variety historically associated with low quality into something premium. Made harder by the fact that two previous launches had not achieved the desired results. The redesign needed to make a complete visual break from that history without losing the authenticity of the cooperative origin. Competitive shelf pressure demanded bold differentiation, and the selection of matte lamination and substrate required sampling rounds to ensure print fidelity within viable costs.
The decision came from the conviction that the work had relevance beyond the local market. Guardião is not just a well-executed package; it is a design case with measurable impact on business results and real social impact for a cooperative that sustains thousands of families. Submitting to the A' Design Award was a way of placing that work in dialogue with the best projects in the world and of positioning Tipz, and Brazilian design outside the main axis, on an international stage.
Grand Interview about Cafe Guardiao Packaging Redesign
The concept crystallized when we understood that Saint Gabriel was not just a religious reference, but a powerful symbol already connected to the name, the territory and the emotional meaning of the coffee. Cafe Guardiao is produced in São Gabriel da Palha, a region where coffee is one of the main sources of livelihood. The name had been chosen by a priest to express the belief that this coffee, and the people behind it, were blessed and protected by the Archangel Gabriel.From that point on, the guardian became the soul of the brand. The wings were not used as decoration, but as a visual metaphor for protection. They watch over the farmers, the beans and the consumer within the same narrative. For Tipz, the challenge was to transform this cultural and spiritual reference into a commercial packaging system capable of working on the shelf.Personally, it was meaningful because we were not creating a fictional story for the brand. We were giving visual form to a truth that already existed in its origin. The best part of the project was turning this invisible feeling of protection into something consumers could immediately see, understand and trust.
The research showed that the problem was not only visual. It was about perception, confidence and purchase intent. During our immersion at Cooabriel, the shelf audits across Greater Vitória and the interviews with directors, cuppers and retail partners, we understood that Conilon coffee had strong quality and regional relevance, but the previous packaging did not communicate that value clearly enough.The redesign translated those insights into direct visual decisions. We created a stronger shelf block, a more organized information hierarchy, a distinctive color system for each line and a visual language that combined accessibility with greater perceived quality. The cream pack for Traditional and the deep teal pack for Extra Forte helped differentiate the products clearly while maintaining the same brand universe. The archangel wings, the seal, the typography and the cooperative signature worked together to create trust at first sight.The first documented result was a 45 percent increase in sales volume for the Traditional line. In a later assessment, that growth reached 100 percent, meaning sales had effectively doubled. For us, this confirms that packaging design is not only about making a product look better. When guided by research, it can change perception, open doors in retail and generate measurable business results.
Conilon coffee often carries a perception challenge, especially when compared to Arabica. Our intention was not to disguise Conilon or make it look like something else. The goal was to reveal its own value with dignity, craft and confidence.The engraving-style illustration brought a sense of heritage, detail and permanence. It helped connect the product to agricultural tradition and to the idea of something carefully protected. The matte lamination created a more refined tactile experience, inviting consumers to look closer and handle the package with more attention. The deep teal substrate moved the brand away from generic category codes and gave it a distinctive, premium presence on shelf.Together, these elements created visual nobility without losing the product’s regional truth. I believe design-led repositioning can help agricultural products change the way they are perceived when it respects their origin instead of hiding it. In this case, design helped Conilon speak with more authority, proving that a regional product can carry cultural depth, commercial value and international design relevance.
The balance came from understanding that the cooperative origin was not a limitation. It was the brand’s greatest source of differentiation. Cooabriel represents collective work, local production, technical knowledge and a direct relationship with farmers. Our challenge was to make those values visible in a packaging system that could still compete against larger brands with more media investment and stronger retail presence.We built the system around clarity, recognition and shelf impact. The pack needed to be easy to understand, strong enough to be seen from a distance and distinctive enough to be remembered. The 100 percent pure Conilon message, the cooperative signature, the purity seal, the bold typography and the archangel-inspired visual universe helped create a direct and trustworthy brand presence.The Bronze A’ Design Award recognition reinforces how important this balance was. The project did not try to imitate mass-market competitors. It created its own territory: a coffee with popular reach, cooperative truth and a more distinctive visual identity. That combination allowed the brand to compete with more confidence, even in a crowded category.
That history made the project more strategic from the beginning. We were not only creating a new appearance for the brand. We were helping Cafe Guardiao return to the market with renewed credibility. When a product has already failed in retail, buyers and consumers do not simply need something new. They need a clear signal that the brand has changed.This influenced the redesign in several ways. We avoided anything that looked fragile, generic or improvised. The new packaging needed to communicate consistency, quality and confidence very quickly. The visual system became more organized, the brand became more visible, the product information became easier to read and the cooperative origin became a stronger asset.For me and for Mateus Matos Montenegro, the project showed that visual identity can help rebuild trust when it is more than a surface change. A good redesign can create a new first impression for a brand that already carries an old memory. In this case, design helped buyers reconsider the product and helped consumers see it with new eyes.
The engraving-style line art was chosen because it gave the packaging a sense of craft, origin and detail while remaining viable for the production reality of the project. For this line, the objective was not to create a luxury package with complex structural effects, but to elevate a high-volume coffee through intelligent graphic decisions.The line art allowed us to build a richer visual world using illustration, contrast and repetition. It also worked well with the archangel concept, because the wings could appear as a protective presence around the brand without overwhelming the information that a retail coffee pack needs to deliver. The botanical elements helped connect the product to the field, reinforcing the agricultural origin of the coffee.The technical challenge was to keep the illustration beautiful and legible within flexographic printing and cost parameters appropriate for a cooperative brand. That required controlling the level of detail, color contrast and visual density. The result is a package that feels more valuable without becoming economically unrealistic. The premium perception comes from precision, not excess.
We see the Cafe Guardiao identity as a system with strong potential for expansion because it is based on simple and resilient principles: protection, origin, clarity and shelf strength. These principles can guide the brand as it grows across Espírito Santo and moves toward national retail distribution.The identity should evolve without losing its connection to São Gabriel da Palha, to Cooabriel and to the farmers. Growth should not make the brand generic. The guardian concept, the wings, the cooperative signature and the clear differentiation between lines are assets that can adapt to new formats, new products and new retail environments.The fact that the redesign opened doors to retail chains previously closed to the brand shows that the visual system solved more than an aesthetic issue. It changed the commercial perception of the product. Long term, the most important role of the identity will be to preserve that trust while allowing the brand to become broader, stronger and more nationally recognizable.
I would say that research is not a bureaucratic step before creativity. Research is what makes creativity more accurate. In this project, the risk was to create only a prettier package. That would not have been enough, because the real challenge involved previous market failure, category stigma and a product that needed to recover trust.The qualitative research helped us understand the shelf, the buyer, the cooperative, the product and the consumer’s perception of Conilon coffee. But just as important as the research was the strategic planning and tone of voice work previously developed by my partners Lygia Bellotti and Mariana Kawase. Their contribution helped define the brand’s direction before any visual solution existed, giving the project a stronger foundation in positioning, language and market relevance.That is why we focused on hierarchy, shelf impact, differentiation between the lines, clearer product information and a stronger symbolic territory. For boutique creative agencies, this is an important lesson. You do not need to be the largest agency to create relevant work, but you need to go deep. Cultural immersion, planning and voice prevent superficial solutions. They help design become a business tool, capable of sustaining value, changing perception and giving the brand a stronger place in the market.
The sequential engagement was very intentional, even though this line is not based on structural effects or heavy tactile finishes. The sophistication of the project comes from how the visual information is organized and revealed as the consumer gets closer to the product.From a distance, the package needed to create a strong block on shelf. The contrast between the cream Traditional line and the deep teal Extra Forte line helped build visibility and differentiation. At arm’s reach, the consumer begins to read the brand, the 100 percent pure seal, the Conilon message and the cooperative origin. During handling, the illustration details, wings, botanical elements and information hierarchy create a richer perception of care and quality.The idea was to make the package work in stages. First, it attracts attention. Then it explains the product. Finally, it reinforces trust. For a high-volume coffee line, this layered experience is very important because the packaging has only a few seconds to change perception and influence purchase.
The compact format required a very clear typographic architecture. With 110 mm of width, 60 mm of depth and 220 mm of height, every element had to work quickly and efficiently. The typography needed to create impact, organize information and make the product easy to understand in a crowded coffee shelf.The bold condensed letterforms gave the word Cafe a strong retail presence. They created visibility from a distance and helped the package compete in a high-volume category. Below that, the Guardiao brand mark brought personality and distinction, while the supporting typography organized roast, grind, purity, weight and cooperative information.Traditional and Extra Forte were differentiated mainly through color, contrast and illustration tone, but the typographic system remained consistent. This allowed each line to have its own personality while still belonging to the same family. At the point of sale, this consistency is essential. It helps consumers recognize the brand quickly and understand the portfolio without confusion.