Steampunk coffee shop

Sign on a Kitsch street…

Hugo: Hmm. And are the coffee beans here ground by a dirigible?
Sophronia: I’ve heard the barista’s name is Percival and is famous for his froth portraits.
Hugo: It’s early, but I could go for a second cup. My stamina gauge is flickering.
Sophronia: Same. There’s a whole morning ahead. I need fuel for philosophical rambling and shoe shopping.
Hugo: I can imagine the taste: smoky, with hints of mahogany and existential dread.
Sophronia: Come on. We have to try it. It’s practically calling to us in Morse code.
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Voice-over
There are steampunk coffeeshops. Design elements: gears, cogs, exposed pipes. Colors: gold, browns, reds. Metals: copper and brass. Mixing retro with futuristic. Makes you wonder what Victorian coffee shops really did look like.

Perking up with Percolated Coffee

A rough day…
Joseph: I felt so down cycling back from town that I stopped for a freshly percolated coffee at Excelsior Caffé. That perked me up.
Wolfgang: Some have such sensitive and gloomy natures! What brought you so low this time?
Joseph: Brother-in-law wrote that he had been knocked around by chemo and radiation. I felt hungry because of this girth-reducing diet I’m on. I lost a video editing gig, at the ATM got confused and forgot my card PIN number. And being between houses, I felt homeless putting all my belongings in boxes. Plus, just feeling old… all this deepened my depression.
Wolfgang: Wow, that’s a good cluster of downers.
Joseph: Seriously, it was a rough day. The coffee helped a bit, though.
Wolfgang: Glad the coffee perked you up. And you have me to unload onto, right?
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Voice-over
Coffee to tide you over the dietary downs, and friends to bring you up from down under.

Coffee Font

Conversation at mid-morning…

Ralph: Check out the sign on the window.

Bill: Yeah, looks alright, I guess.

Ralph: But do you see how the letters resemble coffee beans? Pretty clever, right?

Bill: Hmm, seems like a bit of overthinking, don't you think?

Ralph: It's like a modern-day Chinese pictograph, telling a story with its design.

Bill: Well, to me, it's just eye candy.

Ralph: Different strokes for different folks. But you know, companies shell out big bucks for cool font designers.

Bill: True. I mean, imagine if they used Comic Sans. Huh. Epic job loss.

Ralph: And Helvetica would be too sterile for a cozy coffee shop.

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Voice-over

Matching a name to a font involves consideration of the person or entity’s personality, symbolic associations, expression of an abstract concept, visual allegory, perhaps a cultural or a narrative connection. You can go with instinct but having criteria in mind help.

White Coffee Rabbit

 After retiring from business, White Rabbit has taken a job in a coffee shop, creating whimsical rabbit patterns of milk on cappuccinos. He is finding happiness in embracing the present moment bringing delight to others. He has begun production of a TV series, "Milk & Whiskers”. Premise: he and friends are working together to save the coffee shop from shutting down. Casting is looking for actors to play friends of White Rabbit in this production. You are invited to pitch a walk-on part to save the coffee shop from closure.

WHITE RABBIT   WHITE RABBIT   WHITE RABBIT

The bicycle as a cultural horse

a caffè della bicycletta...

a Fabriano

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Paolo:  Un caffè amico mio?

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Akira: Grazie. Caffetteria interessante.

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Paolo: Coffee sellers used to sell from bicycles. In the poor times. After the war.

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Akira: And I hear all kinds of trades were carried on from the back of bicycles.

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Paolo: It was a kind of cultural horse.

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a Koganei

Akira: Did you name the bicycles?

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Paolo: Famous bicycle names are Bianchi, Colnago and Pinarello. But these are racing brands.

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Akira: Japanese bicycles carry names that are often puzzling. Stylish Space, Ocean Kara.

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Voice-over

A random walk through a bicycle park near a Japanese station reveals the following names on bicycles in a row. Perhaps they are chosen to evoke a feeling.

Stylish Space, Athletic Works, Bobby Town, StepCruz, Anyone, Ocean Kara, OffTime…

...

A Tale of Two Mermaids

Danish

Arranging a meeting...

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Jorn: See you at the station coffee shop. The one with the mermaid.

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Michael: Which mermaid? There are two shops with mermaid signs.

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Jorn: The mermaid with the wheat stalk.

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Michael: Not the mermaid with two tails?

U.S.

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Jorn: Nope. The wheat stalk one has better coffee and much better food.

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Voice-over

The first Starbucks opened in 1971, the first Little Mermaid in 1972.

The mermaid logos are both fetching but many people think like Jorn that the Danish wheat stalk one-tail bakery beats the U.S. two-tail coffee chain on taste and cost.

...

Running a coffee shop

Hasta la vista barrista

This is how…

Customer: Coffee of the day. Medium size. Hot.

Barrista: Always the same.

Customer: Well, you change the coffee every day, so I have to keep something constant.

Barrista: Today, the beans are from Yemen. Medium roast.

Customer: Ah. Terrorista barrista?

Barrista: It’s an exciting brew.

___________

Voice-over

This is how my favorite coffee shop does coffee. Their daily coffee is a different bean, a different roast from a different country every day. It’s written up on a board. Next follows some banter. Then you get to leave.

…