Owner Ian Peters opened the store 13 years ago. Empire initially began as a coffee shop, but Peters, an avid music fan, decided to take advantage of the extra space in his building and convert the second floor into a record store, which was officially opened in November 2020. Empire is known for its house-made waffles and Chia pudding as well as generally just being an awesome environment to study or just relax and listen to music while you sip on a coffee.
This project began as a collaborative effort to conduct research on Empire Roasters & Records. Then, each member of the team created their own brand guides based on our interpretation of the research. The project took place from January 2024 - March 2024. If you would like to see their work, please feel free to check out their sites as well!
Empire Roasters & Records is a one-stop shop for coffee lovers and avid music fans. It’s a cozy place where people are encouraged to relax, study, and spend time with friends. They value inclusivity and community. However, their current branding is inconsistent, not scalable, and does not effectively represent those values.
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Empire's primary audience is college-aged students, young professionals, avid music collectors, and coffee enthusiasts. During the research phase, my team and I identified three keywords that closely aligned with Empire's image and values. These keywords served as the foundation for developing three distinct tonal territories, which in turn guided the direction of our branding efforts. The identified keywords were "Curated," "Community-Driven," and "Authentic." I predominantly drew inspiration from the authentic and community-driven tonal territories. Subsequently, I curated my own concept board centered around the idea of "Candid Community." Recognizing the significance of representing community and authenticity, I chose hand-drawn illustrations and gritty textures as the primary visual elements. Initially, I encountered challenges in creating suitable graphics. However, through iterative development, I refined my concept to ensure that each element adhered to a consistent pattern, thus fostering cohesiveness across the design.
This process began with exploring the shop itself. There we identified a lack of cohesive branding while also getting a feel for the environment. After our initial research, we began identifying imagery, type, and even textures that we felt best identified with Empire. We eventually narrowed these down into three concept boards, of which we took varying degrees of inspiration for our respective versions of the branding.
As mentioned earlier, we developed three concept boards based on keywords that we felt defined the brand. Those concepts were: community-driven, Authentic, and Curated. Of these, I eventually developed my own concept board under 'Candid Community'. I wanted to embrace the connection that people feel through music, and the idea that Empire is a place to be with friends and be yourself. To achieve this, I chose an illustrative style of graphic elements, that could almost feel as if they were doodled in the shop as you sipped on your coffee.
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I developed several collateral pieces to allow more opportunities for the audience to connect with the brand. Seen below are punch cards for the records and Coffee respectively, as well as merch items which sport the new branding as well.
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To curate a cohesive identity for Empire Roasters & Records, I solidified the color palette, graphical elements, and type. The result was a brand style guide where each element complements and interacts with the last, all while fitting together as one consistent design system.
