RIESEN X WHITE POMEGRANATE

For all you coffee lovers…

Well, the title says it all. A happy and wonderful collaboration between two industries, coffee and textiles, comes together in the world of packaging!

It began with a simple question from Adrian, a master barista from Liechtenstein and the brain behind all this, our dear friend Karina; would you like to do an overall picture/drawing for our packaging… and the rest is history. It helped that I had visited them in Liechtenstein to understand the brand and the product. It is hard to fit this long, beautiful story of friendship/collaboration into a short blog, but I’ll try. 

In his own words,

“Riesen AG exists since 1977. I ended up working in my parents’ coffee business in 1997. Back then, I was in the workshop because I had a technical background. It was just a job and really only meant to be a stopgap between being a snowboard instructor and a bike mechanic, until I found something I enjoyed. My passion for coffee then developed through my first portafilter machines and the art of barista work. Up until then, my parents’ product line consisted of instant coffee and fully automatic machines. 

Little by little, I transitioned the product line, and we’ve been roasting our own beans since 2010. In the beginning, it was commercial coffee; today, we exclusively offer direct-trade coffee varieties”.

Adrian in his old workshop

The turning point

After visiting him at his workshop, I was so inspired. The coffee field trip to India and the Farmers to Roasters project initiative, which he experienced alongside Karina—who was serving as the interim managing director of another roastery at the time—marked a groundbreaking turning point for his roastery’s future. During this interim role, Karina realised coffee and being close to its origin were truly her world. 

Inspired by these shared experiences, the two decided to combine their skills and embark on a joint mission. Adrian’s deep, broad-ranging coffee expertise is now complemented by Karina’s communicative skills in text and visuals, as well as her strategic talent for sharpening and projecting the brand’s positioning to the outside world. Their values…Adrian’s vision is very clear, in his own words: Their Values: We believe in working together as equals, with respect and trust at every step of the value chain — from farmers and logistics partners to our customers. Above all, we want to be driven by conviction and purpose — while building a business that allows us to make a living from what we believe in.

Looking out of the window in Adrain’s coffee unit only to find a Rainbow

I had in mind and realised that his coffee, much like my own fabrics, is not run-of-the-mill. As we entered his workshop, I saw his little godown with jute bags, one on top of another, filled with raw beans ready to roast.

We looked at these bags and the artwork on some of them. Then, with this idea—which resonated strongly with my own style of working (by hand, not digitally) and Adrian’s too (Riesen Kaffee Manufaktur( Website link here) stands for expertise throughout the entire coffee journey—from bean to cup. This starts with sourcing coffee directly at origin and knowing where and how the beans are produced, and continues all the way through roasting, extracting, and serving coffee in our crazy barista caterings—we began. 

Adrian was clear from the beginning that he wanted a tribal element, since much of the coffee he sourced came from communities in Colombia, Peru, Africa, and India, to name a few. We reviewed several artworks to see what would resonate, and within 8 months, we changed not just the packaging but the logo and his showroom. 

Adrian not only roasts but also represents Coffee Tech in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. He works with their incredibly professional, almost family-like teams, which has given him deep roasting expertise across small- to large-scale machines. Coffee Techs are true masters of roaster engineering, creating machines that feel like works of art, customised to each roastery. Today, he trains renowned roasteries and helps them develop new roast profiles.

Here are some inspirations that got us started, along with some of the artworks we reviewed before arriving at the final artwork.

Here are just a few of my sketches which I presented to Adrian…

Images from my sketch book

Style 3 reimagined on a coffee packet of Warli Art telling the story of coffee harvesting

We did more variations but only few are shown here. Once he chose what he liked, we refined it. We chose to bring out the tribal component in the spine and the Logo, and give the artwork a cleaner, more refined look. 

For the logo, we took inspiration from the Mayan Bird symbolism, representing freedom, divinity and light. 

The colours were inspired during my visit there, as it was autumn; the trees, with their deep autumnal hues of reds and oranges, the warmth it exuded, and the shutters on the buildings were so beautiful. 

And Voila, after months of back and forth, this was the final outcome.

Image: Karina Jener

Image of the new colours and packaging courtesy of Karina Jener

Adrian and Karina also doe exciting events such as Catering at Bettgeschichten Zürich: (website link here).A beautiful and festive catering experience at Bettgeschichten in Zurich. https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ16QAyiGep/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

And

Wedding Catering on an Alp > https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7493705309102854144

And

India Farmers to Roasters Project— bringing farmers and roasters together to learn from each other, understand each other’s challenges, and continuously improve quality and collaboration in a sustainable way. > https://lnkd.in/p/eTJgKBCA

Adrian at one of his events 

Image: Karina Jener

So, dear friends in Switzerland and neighbours, if you want to buy high-quality coffee, you  must try Adrain’s coffee (I am biased, of course), but also this packaging travels with him whenever he goes, and for me the main thing was (no matter how long it took to develop) that in the end Adrian was happy with what he got, and I think it is safe to say that he did ; )

I will leave you with a picture that says it all… happy, meaningful work brings happy, lifelong friendships and memories.