Coffee Bean Beer Bottles by Nendo for Sekinoichi

Words // Andrea Designboom

Coffee and beer aficionados are learning that adding coffee beans to beer during the brewing process enhances the ale with a deep taste due to the bitterness and aroma of the beans. Anchor coffee, a business in Kesennuma, a small city in Northern Japan, and sake and beer brewery Sekinoichi of Ichinoseki, another small city in the same region–both of these areas were devastated by the earthquake and tsunami which hit the area in March 2011, and were born as charity projects to fundraise for disaster relief–have developed a coffee beer beverage, inviting Nendo to create the packaging for the brand. As a means of keeping costs low, the studio decided to continue using the existing bottles, and cover them with small labels in the shape of coffee beans. Simple in its appearance, but distinct enough to maintain the identity of the products, the graphics are applied by hand, offering a variation in patterning with every bottle, something large breweries can’t offer.

the patterning of each bottle is unique