A future coffee enthusiast’s guide to brewing excellence.
Ten years ago of someone asked you how you brew coffee. Your answer might have been more predictable: Espresso, or maybe an Americano.
This guide will walk you through many methods for brewing coffee, from normal to new-age, and get you excited to brew coffee in every way imaginable.
This project is close to my heart because I particularly love all of the technical aspects of coffee. This guidebook serves to get readers excited about the side of coffee they may not know about, but not in a prestigious or snobby way.
Visual Methods
As this book is encouraging the reader to learn about many hands-on methods of making coffee at home, it was important to have an equally hands-on approach to how the visuals were made. That’s why all of the icons and illustrations are hand-drawn, rather than rendered in Illustrator.
As this book is encouraging the reader to learn about many hands-on methods of making coffee at home, it was important to have an equally hands-on approach to how the visuals were made. That’s why all of the icons and illustrations are hand-drawn, rather than rendered in Illustrator.
Regarding level of detail, it was a challenge to have each brewing method and drink be visually descriptive enough to tell what it is, but not too descriptive so as to make readers think this was one machine, rather than a group of methods.
Throughout the book, be it illustrations or photos, there is no presence of black, and everything is ‘coffee stained’ with a warm brown hue to offset the stark white of the page. It also helps the book to feel a bit warmer and less sterile.
Solutions
Coffee is a complex subject. It has hundreds of methods and techniques, and each machine, temperature and bean is so drastically different that the complexity often turns people off. It was important to highlight all forms of coffee brewing, from traditional to historical to instant, because everyone's preferences and needs are unique.
There’s a weird level of shame from the coffee community regarding some of those brewing methods, so to combat that in particular, this book focuses on all brewing methods equally
and with care.
There are hundreds of different methods and machines, so the first step was to break down the content by general brewing type, which yielded Pressure, Steeping, Pourover and Instant. From there, more common methods of brewing by technique sprung up, so both common and exotic were picked to give a good balance of familiar information and new.
It’s all about breaking new ground, but in a friendly way.
Results
This coffee book serves to guide curious coffee people gently into the world of coffee. The use of illustration and strong illustrative icons, paired with a very deliberate book organization helps to ease people into the technical side of coffee without being overwhelming. The pacing allows for readers to stop and smell the coffee.
This coffee book serves to guide curious coffee people gently into the world of coffee. The use of illustration and strong illustrative icons, paired with a very deliberate book organization helps to ease people into the technical side of coffee without being overwhelming. The pacing allows for readers to stop and smell the coffee.
The warm tones and more casual language help as well, making for a good book to reference back to, or even just look through while you’re drinking your morning cup of java. It’s a good coffee table book that helps you appreciate coffee, no matter how you decide to brew it.
