Coffee By Design
Designer | PCKG .co designer Elaina V. Nelson worked with the Coffee By Design team, led by owner Mary Allen Lindemann
Location | Portland, Maine USA
Launch Date | January 15th, 2026
Coffee By Design believes a great cup of coffee changes lives. Strengthening connections between the countries of origin and our local communities. From the tree to your cup, we foster an unbroken thread of artistry, care, and labor, stretching across the globe to bring exceptional coffee. Coffee with an impact that resounds globally and locally. Amplifying voices, spurring creativity, creating a union of experiences, culture and legacies. Coffee that tells the story of a better world we can build together. It was important this philosophy be reflected in our new packaging.
We viewed rebranding as an opportunity to say who we are as a company: Maine Made, Woman Owned, and Farmer Focused. We choose our coffee farms based in part on their sustainable practices and made sure that our bags reflect our commitment to sustainability through the materials used.
We wanted to make it as easy as possible for customers to join our coffee journey with color coded bags signifying caffeinated, decaf and flavored. We developed three custom textile-inspired prints, each tied to a different geographic lineage of coffee production. A poppy-driven floral references the rhythm and density of traditional Indian textiles. An ikat-inspired pattern nods to weaving traditions found across Central and South America. A bold geometric print draws influence from African textile motifs and pattern geometry. Each of the coffees carries its own dominant color story, but the patterns intentionally share overlapping hues, so the three bags read as a cohesive group rather than separate designs. The goal was unity through variation reinforcing that diversity is our strength.
Sustainability is essential to the future of the coffee industry and is a topic we take very seriously. We choose our coffee farms based in part on their sustainable practices and made sure that our bags reflected our commitment to sustainability.
From a material standpoint, the bags are produced using a mono-material polyethylene structure (MDO PE + EVOH PE), allowing them to qualify for #4 recyclable streams. This was a deliberate shift away from traditional multi-material laminations that are not recyclable in most markets.
On the bottom panel, we included the #4 recyclable designation alongside a QR code that links directly to the Coffee By Design website to help customers identify proper drop-off or recycling options within their own communities. Rather than assuming consumer knowledge, the design creates a pathway for education and responsible disposal.
