Forza

Forza opened into a market where every coffee shop looks the same: the same minimal sans-serif, the same beige palette, the same generic bean illustration. A new shop with no history has to earn trust from the storefront alone.

The brief was to make a brand-new business feel established from day one, with a personality distinctive enough to be remembered after a single visit.

I anchored the identity in the brand's own manifesto, "a força que move quem cria", the force that moves those who create. Then I gave it a character to carry that energy: a running coffee cup drawn in a 1930s rubber-hose cartoon style.

The mascot does the emotional work; a high-contrast display serif does the serious work. Together they let the brand be playful on a cup sleeve and confident on a storefront without switching personalities.

A two-color core (burnt orange on warm cream, grounded by deep brown) keeps production cheap and recognition high. Everything was built for real applications: cups, menus, signage, uniforms, packaging and social.

The result is a system a small team can run without a designer on call: clear rules for the mascot, the wordmark and the palette, and enough range that the brand stays alive across every touchpoint.