How we made room to grow without losing the parts that made us First Press

More products, more places to show up and more people discovering us mean more chances more chances to lose the thread. So when we evolved First Press, we wanted to make sure growth gave us more personality, not less.

The parts we wanted to keep

The coffee was the easy part. The slow 10-hour cold drip extraction, our obsession with sourcing and that smooth, bold taste were never up for debate. 

We also knew people already recognised parts of First Press: the elk, our Melbourne roots and the sense of adventure that has been there since two mates decided to build a cold drip machine and find a better way to brew.

We didn't need to become a different brand. We needed a clearer way to express who we already were, with enough flexibility to take us somewhere new.

Making more room for First Press

Our brand now has a lot of jobs to do. It needs to stand out in a busy fridge, work across different product ranges, feel at home online and still look like us when it turns up somewhere completely new.

First Press was born in Melbourne, so it was important for us to work with brand strategists in Melbourne who understood where we'd come from and where we wanted to go. We teamed up with Brandwell to build a system around the things worth protecting. The elk was redrawn with a little more playfulness. The type became bolder and more expressive. Coffee-inspired neutrals were joined by fresh blue and caramel, and the rolling waves gave everything more movement.

Those ingredients give us room to change the mood without changing who we are. A new flavour can have its own personality. A campaign can be loud or laid-back. A pack, post or billboard can do a different job and still feel unmistakably First Press.

The real test is out in the world

A new look can feel great on launch day. The real test comes later, when it has to work on an actual shelf, across a growing range and in places you didn't expect to see it quite so soon.

Our 300ml range is now on shelves in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. That means the same packs are meeting people with different shopping habits and very different levels of familiarity with cold drip coffee.

The refreshed identity helps do some of the explaining before anyone takes a sip. It makes the range easier to navigate, gives the product story more clarity and keeps us recognisable from one market to the next.

There's something pretty special about seeing a Melbourne-born coffee turn up on a shelf overseas. It's even better when it still feels completely at home in its own skin.

Same spirit with more places to go

For us, staying distinctive doesn't mean making every pack or post look exactly the same. It means keeping hold of the details that make First Press feel like First Press, then giving them enough room to move.

That is what the new system is helping us do. We can add products, explore new ideas and show up in new countries without leaving the original idea behind: great coffee, ready when you are.