Outdoor signage designed for Intelligentsia’s presence at The Allis social space & café in Soho House Chicago.

As Erin makes her first political bid in her native Omaha for a Metro Board position, the Ratiofarm is proud to have helped envision a contemporary identity for print and web. This is the first signage for what will undoubtedly be a long political career for this progressive firebrand.

Located in Northeast Los Angeles, Orto Farms is focused on giving back to the LA community on multiple fronts. For their identity, we wanted to merge the essence of their farm with its Italian roots (“orto” is Italian for vegetable garden, and the founder is proud of his Italian ancestry). Together, we scoured designs and typography from early 20th Century Italy to craft a unique presence and hand-made font for this singular foundation.

I enjoy my work most when it benefits a noble pursuit, find out more about Orto’s inspiring mission here.

These are the first two issues of a magazine about Intelligentsia’s journey through the world of coffee that I concepted with Intelli’s Director of Sourcing and Shared Sustainability, Michael Sheridan. The first issue is a showcase for Intelligentsia’s 2017 coffee producer event, the Extraordinary Coffee Workshop. The second issue discusses their 2018 offerings from the Southern Hemisphere. All Design and Layout by the Ratiofarm, concept By the Ratiofarm & Michael Sheridan, photography by Taylor Moribito and the producers and buyers for Intelligentsia Coffee.

Because Kilogram Tea has many offerings that change with the season, their promotional one-sheets are in frequent need of updating. In late 2017, I moved away from an older style to embrace the aesthetics of the poster series I made for the brand (on view in the fine art section of this website), introducing organic shapes and patterns of a much wider variety than had previously been employed. Here you can see a sampling of a few of my favorites.

Photograph by Taylor Morobito.

One of many counter cards made for Intelligentsia’s retail coffeebars to advertise new and seasonal beverages.

A series of promo cards for retail customers, printed as both postcards and thick letter sized cards with stands for retail customers to display. A selection can be seen here.

Photos by A Klass.

Here’s just one of many ePostcards I made for email blasts to Intelligentsia's subscribers. This one features the seasonal blend Summer Solstice. Each year, I was tasked with making a new logomark for the seasonal blends, here you see Summer Solstice’s most recent iteration.

Hats, shirts, and notebooks made for the first ECWx conference. Click here to learn more.

Bring on those sweet summer afternoon garden parties! Lots of little details in this tribute to the classic Hawaiian button down and every coffee enthusiast’s favorite plant. Blue sunburst cup design also by the Ratiofarm.

Left photo by A Klass.

Right photo by Alina Tsvor.

The Intelligentsia logo tee for 2017-18. Illuminating the path towards an amazing coffee experience.

Insanely popular logo redux t for Intelli's signature Black Cat Espresso.

Photograph by A Klass.

Throwback shirt for Intelli's 10th year anniversary in LA. Loosely inspired by Ellie's shirt from The Last of Us. 

Photograph by A Klass.

An eldritch visage emerged from the flames, saying, "Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” “What must I do?” I answered. And it replied, “I will guide thy hand." So it was that the arcane El Diablo Dark Roast shirt was conjured into this realm.

Photograph by A Klass.

Inspired by ancient rights and early British Psyche-folk bands, this shirt celebrating Intelligentsia's Summer Solstice Blend was printed on a mineral washed tee for added pseudo-nostalgia.

Photograph by A Klass.

Blue and red double print on a baseball t, goes great with 3D glasses!

Photograph by A Klass.

Crewneck sweat for the initiated.

Photograph by A Klass.

Due to the response we received from the design on the previous year's flier, we decided to make the Intelli coffee sweater a reality. In the era of ugly sweaters, this was a smash hit that sold out in less than a week! 

Photograph by A Klass.

Inspired by the classic paisley design. 

"From darkness, towards illumination"

In this embroidered patch, the eye is drawn from the Intelligentsia wings logo, and plays once again with the inverted idea of the all-seeing pyramid: to lift up and look up.

Photos by Taylor Morabito

It gets hot in the tropical regions where coffee grows, so Intelligentsia's green coffee buyers stay cool and shaded with this well-ventilated piece of headgear. Works great in non-tropical climes as well!

Accompanying hat for the Holiday Sweater.

Swag for Intelligentsia's 2017 Extraordinary Coffee Workshop, including posters, hat, hoodie, and sketchbook (by the amazing Shawn Smith at reSketch)

Photos by Taylor Morabito

Transforming the op-art cup design into a tote bag & headgear.

Photograph by A Klass.

Ditch those earth-hating plastic bags and opt to haul your sundries in these Intelli tote bags! Designed for the Intelligentsia at the High Line Hotel and LA retail locations. 

Original designs for Intelligentsia’s Post Office Square shop in Boston and Chicago’s Monadnock coffee bar.

Having started in the Boystown neighborhood of Chicago, Intelligentsia has deep roots in the LGBTQ community. These are designs for 2017 and 2016 Pride. 

Photograph by A Klass.

People freakin' love enamel pins, and these two new designs went like hotcakes.

Photograph by A Klass.

Intelligentsia's pioneering filter mug and iconic Silver Lake tile... as enamel pins!

Photograph by A Klass.

More specialized, short-run, letter press labels for Intelligentsia's super high-end coffee collection. Lovingly printed by the excellent team at Rohner Letterpress.

Two mind-blowing geshas from coffee's origin. Printed by the amazing folks at Rohner Letterpress.

Photograph by A Klass.

New themed sleeves to keep your hands safe while enjoying your favorite coffee.

Photograph by A Klass.

A new cup celebrating 20 years of coffee exploration (taken from my design for our coffee bar at Liberty Fairs NYC), a new seasonal clutch for the holidays.

Photograph by A Klass.

Enjoy your sparkling Turmeric Tonic on the go, or take a load off in a coffee house and sip that effervescent King Crimson at a leisurely pace. Both of these designs were inspired by the packaging for Kilogram’s loose-leaf teas.

Photography by Taylor Moribito

A limited edition mug for Solemn Oath’s sixth anniversary party, a.k.a. Oathday, this was a collaboration with Jourdon Gullett (in-house designer for Solemn Oath, can on the left). He made the lettering for the mug and I based the Intelligentsia lettering off of that. The fighting raven and snakes imagery was inspired by Jourdon’s poster art for the party, and based on a logo I made for featured Peruvian coffee, Rayos del Sol.

Check out Jourdon’s mind-melting work here.

Find out more about Solemn Oath Beer here. I don’t drink beer often, but when I do, you can bet your sweet ass it’s Solemn Oath.

This was a last-minute holiday project to test/introduce a new product to Intelligentsia’s shops. I was asked to make a “woodsy” graphic about camping or hiking. I grew up in the mountains of the western Carolinas, something I frequently find myself longing for. This phrase pops up in my mind when the city gets to be a little much, so it seemed only natural to apply it to this situation. The idea transferred well to this incredibly popular item.

Photo from the blog Indulge Inspire Imbibe.

A new, high-end line of coffees requires distinctive packaging. In order for the product to stand apart from its cousins on Intelligentsia's retail shelves while remaining cohesive with the established design language, a calm, matte-white bag was chosen. The ribbon was placed off-center to draw the eye, while a simple, elegant gold-leaf design was employed to evoke the quality of the product within.  

Available here for aficionados and the curious.

Photograph by A Klass.

This is the first of several Reserve Collection packages that I designed. 

The design for Heritage’s coffee bag drew inspiration from a large collection of old matchbook covers that owner Michael Salvatore inherited from a family member. It was hard to pick a single design, but in the end, we went with the one on the top far-right. Click the link to see the final product.

The coffee bag design for the non-alcoholic companion piece to Goose Island’s 2017 Bourbon County Coffee Stout.

The coffee component for this year's incarnation of Goose Island and Intelligentsia's coveted, Bourbon barrel-aged coffee stout is itself a perennial favorite. This year, we decided to dress up the GI's coffee selection (Los Delirios from Nicaragua) with a bag based on the new Bourbon County bottle. A mug came with a bag of the coffee as part of a special set. Upon its release on Black Friday, the set sold out in three hours.

Photograph by A Klass.

Packaging wrap for an Intelligentsia collaboration with Mayana Chocolates. 

Photograph by A Klass.

Just in time for the cold weather, Intelligentsia's holiday themed Cocoa tins arrived. Left is 2017, right is 2015.

A play on the new striped cup, to enjoy at your office party!

Photograph by A Klass.

Believe it or not, the water that Intelligentsia uses in its cafés is expertly calibrated to provide optimum flavor, and it's even specific to each city we have shops in. People ask our baristas so frequently about how we get our coffee to taste so great that we decided to sell the water in these lovely growlers. 

This poster features all of the main graphic elements I created for Intelligentsia's 2015 Extraordinary Coffee Workshop (ECW) in Guatemala. The face is an interpretation of the Yucatec Mayan god Itzamna, who has long been a symbol invoked by Intelligentsia and our Guatemalan partners. I've been fascinated with the Mayan pictographic language for a while, so I blended that into a contemporary psychedelic band poster and a custom typeface, all placed to subtly evoke the volcanic imagery of the country. This imagery was broken apart in various ways for formats ranging from patches, t-shirts, and name tags to massive banners and vehicle magnets.

Photograph by Andrew Klass.

Raul Perez of Finca La Soledad (center) is seen here wearing the sublimation print t-shirt I designed for Intelligentsia's ECW 2015 in Guatemala. I incorporated aspects of the Guatemalan flag and national soccer team jersey to tie it to the ECW host country.

Photograph by Andrew Klass.

Here are two more examples of how I used the ECW imagery. Presented by the inestimable Geoff Watts. 

Photograph by A Klass.

Here is a rendition by some of the local Guatemalan graphic designers I thought was pretty interesting.

Photograph by A Klass.

Intelligentsia's QC manager Chris Kornman was spotted in Guatemala rocking my sweet Black Coffee shirt.

Photograph by A Klass.

For Intelli's 20th year in business, I designed a logomark comprised of the original logo from 1995 and modern figure design. This has apeared in many forms since its original inception in early 2015, from shirts to glassware to neon. Here it is on the picture window of the Broadway flagship shop.

Photograph by A Klass.

A double-sided neon sign for Intelligentsia's 20th Anniversary at the flagship Broadway shop.

Photographs by Tony LeSeure

My first neon sign. The shop in Logan Square is a modern take on a 60s-style diner, so I incorporated that idea into this design.

Some proposed concepts for new neon signs.

The QC lab at Intelligentsia made a Black Cat espresso blend to celebrate the 20th Anniversary and needed a logo mark for promotion.

Photograph by Andrew Klass

This saw several different incarnations across web, social media, and print. This is the post card.

This graphic wrap I initially designed for our coffee bar at Liberty Fairs Fashion Show in NYC eventually morphed into Intelli's new 12oz cup. 

Here is the wrap in more applications.

Web banner for Intelligentsia's Finca Takesi Reserve Collection. Photography also by Rob Patterson, 2015

In February of 2015, Intelligentsia partnered with Good Beer Hunting for the first Uppers and Downers festival of coffee beers. Many of Chicago's local breweries and roasters came together at Thalia Hall to showcase a creative array of amazing flavors. A convivial and delicious time was had by all at this sold-out event. Check out Good Beer Hunting for more details on upcoming happenings, as well as loads of great stories and photography about beer.

Glasses and table.

Photography by Eva Deitch

Some paraphernalia from U&D, February 2015  

Photography by Eva Deitch

I designed this floral motif based on the coffee tree. Sport it on this flat billed, five-panel hat with burnished leather Wings and star side patch!

For this design, I wanted to invoke a contemporary pattern trend. I took the simple star from Intelligentsia's logo and placed it in a polka dot pattern on a flat brim, five-panel hat. A burnished Intelligentsia wings and star adorn the front on a leather patch. 

A first in the coffee world, this Intelligentsia Reserve collection featured three different parts of the coffee plant: coffee (obviously), the coffee flower (rare and expensive because it becomes the coffee bean), and sultana (also known as cascara), which is the fruit of the cherry that the bean grows inside of. I decided to step outside the box of our usual design to present something more pop oriented by illuminating the 3D aspect. The package included 3D glasses with which to view a poster, instructions, and packaging. 

Photograph by Andrew Klass.

One of several poster designs based on ugly holiday sweaters, resulting in a sweater concept. Photograph from the Smithsonian archives.

For this collaboration I made a companion graphic for the New Pornographers' Brill Bruisers album. The image on the bag was on the reverse side of the mug as well.

An "urban panel" ad at the Ashland/Division L stop. A companion bus panel was in circulation as well, both ran through Winter 2014 - Spring 2015.

A poster and font designed for a collaborative benefit with Sprudge coffee blog.

One of the great things about working for Intelligentsia is that I have so much creative freedom. Shop posters are an area where I get to play around and work through techniques and process inspiration. 

Restaurant identity, logo and signage. Website and photography to come  

Update Interiors brand identity

Update Interiors brand identity

Logo and print design for The Nosh artisan food festival at Wicker Park, Chicago. Hit it this Saturday!

Illustration, design and layout for Pretty Monsters

Check. It. Out!

Ghostpepper Art Gallery and Performance Space logo, Chicago 

Asian Studies Program logo for banners and t-shirts

History Department logo for banners and t-shirts

Personal poster for exhibition of paintings

Personal cover for music accompanying Liminalia book. Ongoing project

Personal exhibition poster for Focus Ten show

I based this logo on the Mayan glyph for "to scatter".

http://www.sustainablesharing.org

3D button logo for Northcenter Chamber of Commerce website

Poster design and digital tech for Dennis E. Wile's only exhibition of his World War II photography. At Emory University, Decatur, GA