Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters
Sight, Smell, Taste, Touch, Sound, ESP and Proprioception. Let’s celebrate our human-ness and our connection with each other through the immersive sensory experience of coffee. We handpicked 7 artists to partner with to explore the five “common” senses and two “uncommon” senses. Through their incredible artwork, we aim to celebrate our human experience, the importance of our connection with each other and how coffee plays a role in those stories. Each of our designs was originally pieces of art, created for our bags through different mediums ranging from sculpture to watercolor, and photography. The black and white backdrop serves as a stage for the true star of the bag to take center spotlight: the coffee label itself. Enhanced with a matte finish and velvety texture, our bags exude sophistication and tactile allure. We hope you enjoy reading about our artists, their creations and the connection they have to the beautiful world of coffee.
// Coffee Bloom // Laurel Sprenger Created first as an etching, this design launched the Sweet Bloom branding revamp in 2015. Coffee begins with a bloom - an elegant, fragrant white flower - and blooms again when infused with hot water. We care deeply about everything in between these two blooms, and this design represents our dedication to the first steps in that journey. Laurel Sprenger is one of the two founding members of Sweet Bloom and if you’ve been with us for any amount of time you will have seen some of her artwork in designs of the past. She’s a fantastic artist, and a treasure and Sweet Bloom would very literally not exist without her.
Sight // Fuzzilear The eye is something of a miracle, taking in light as it bounces off the world around us and transforming it into what we see. The iris itself works like the shutter of a camera, retracting to shut out light or opening wider to let in more light. Just like the unique identity of every coffee bean, the eye exists as a personal work of art, belonging to one body. Passionate about protecting our environment, @fuzeillear paints public murals that highlight and champion native wildlife species and the challenges that they face. She currently resides on the Sunshine Coast, Australia and we are overjoyed to finally get to work with her after being long-time fans of her work.
Sound // Davis Scruggs, The Made Shop A few things that are music to our ears: beans roasting round and round, espresso being ground prepping for a perfect shot and your cappuccino order called at the bar. The world of sound around us can be a low hum of peaceful background melodies or a stimulating conversation with a barista behind the bar - either way, sound is a beautiful gift. @davisxscruggs is a designer at The Made Shop in Denver, CO with interests in photography and art direction. He is a versatile creative whose only flaw is that he doesn’t drink coffee.
Smell // Parker Metcalf, The Made Shop Deep inhale…deep exhale…we hope you were somewhere pleasant for that. Our sense of smell can connect us to memories and influence us to make decisions. Imagine the smell of rain on the pavement, Christmas cookies or your parents making coffee every morning. One whiff and somehow you’re right back in that moment. A sensory photograph. @parkermetcalf is obsessed with how stories are told, shared and shown. He believes design should be as beautiful as it is clear. He currently works in Denver, CO at The Made Shop developing brands, making art and telling bad jokes. We are so grateful for his perspective on smell as a memory in this piece.
Touch // Kate Burnette, The Made Shop From rough sandpaper to a gentle hug, touch informs us of the textures that surround us. It’s a sense that requires trust and care as we navigate the space we take up and how that relates to one another. Touch is integral to the entire process of coffee, from the hands that pick cherries at origin to the hands that prepare drinks in the cafe. @_darth_kater is a designer at The Made Shop in Denver, CO who specializes in making a mess and calling it art. She thanks you for picking up her bag and hopes that it inspired a moment of curiosity in your day.
Taste // Lio-Bravo is One of the most complex senses that seems to be different for just about everyone. Does cilantro taste like soap to you? When it comes to coffee, the taste is everything as you pick up notes of berries, honey, and milk chocolate. It’s still such a mystery how our tongue can differentiate between sweet, sour, savory or bitter. @liobumba is a self-taught artist who paints the modern experience in swaths of folkloric imagery. He believes ART provides a window into the ethereal, the space between the physical and the immaterial. ESP // Laura Shill Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense (or the spidey sense), is a paranormal ability to sense information, not with the typical physical senses, but with the mind. Think intuition, empathy, or even telepathy! This sense is more common than we think as we care for people, listen to our gut and sense the vibes around us. @lauraleeshill is an artist whose practice is a collision of sculpture, installation, performance and photography locked in a perpetual game of hide and seek with itself. Aka - the perfect person to tackle ESP.
Proprioception // Kristina Davies This body awareness sense tells us where our body parts are without having to look for them. This sense is imperative to coffee as it also tells us how much force to use when we're holding, pushing, pulling, or lifting objects. So whether you’re a multitasking roaster, barista tamping a shot or a customer lifting that cup to your mouth, proprioception is at work! @kristinadaviesart is an artist and educator who believes that the act of painting is a form of self-discovery, Her art is both non-representational and figurative. She lives and works in Denver, CO and we are such fans of her and her process.
Our hope for this new bag collection was twofold: We wanted to provide a unique canvas for artists to showcase their talent, while simultaneously inviting people to dig a little deeper in their sensory coffee journey. We hope you can experience coffee in a new and exciting way through sight, smell, taste, touch, sound, ESP and proprioception. Cheers!
