Sergeant Walnuts, a Manchester-based creative agency, has collaborated with local coffee startup Oddy Knocky to craft its brand for this emerging business. Driven by a belief that “great coffee should be one of life’s simple pleasures”, Oddy Knocky strives to offer delicious beverages without all of the “cheerless chin-stroking” that typically occurs with many trendy coffee brands.
Matt Whitehead, Oddy Knocky founder explains: “While we take great pride in producing high-quality beans and roasting them with precision, we also try to have fun while doing it!
Photo shows Oddy Knocky branding on three product packages with its iconic, quirky elongated wordmark, as well as on one with the words ‘Pairs well with independent thought’ on a black background.
At Sergeant Walnuts’ request, their first task as an agency was to choose a name for Whitehead’s brand. Drawing upon his DIY attitude and belief in unfiltered self-expression, they chose ‘Oddy Knocky’ from A Clockwork Orange which hails from Russian language – as it had a great ring with coffee but more importantly meant going alone or being independent – which fit well with Whitehead’s brand ethos.
Sergeant Walnuts used Oddy Knocky as inspiration when developing their visual identity for Sergeant Walnuts. Finding balance between independence, playfulness and accessibility with premium qualities beans that reflected all variants was always our focus.” Richard Attwater of Sergeant Walnuts says finding that perfect balance was always at the forefront of their minds when creating Sergeant Walnuts products.
Oddy Knocky’s packaging features the quirky elongated wordmark and multiline font letters “O” and “K”. In this photo, someone pours milk from a silver jug into a takeout cup decorated with Oddy Knocky branding and multiline logo.
So the branding embraced an aesthetic that was both playful and thoughtful, such as using an exaggerated letterform that invokes retro aesthetic. Most notable among this aesthetic was using custom typography with bold, groovy letterforms that give an aesthetic that was both playful and thoughtful; specifically the letterforms for A Clockwork Orange posters and promotional material as they give the identity an exaggerated, eye-catching character that adds great personality.
Attwater says Oddy Knocky was important to maintaining a professional, premium feel – its color palette plays a role in this. Primarily black and white with occasional pops of orange allude to A Clockwork Orange posters and play off its name while brighter hues used sparsely on stickers draw attention to blends available for sale.
Oddy Knocky features multiline typography and coffee cups on five posters as part of its branding, along with multiline font on their website. These photos illustrate this brand.
Sergeant Walnuts also considered the variety of blends available when designing Oddy Knocky, not only when offering eight initial coffee variants initially but as more are added over time, says Attwater. In order to meet Oddy Knocky’s goals of engaging with multiple flavour profiles and places of origin with ease. Furthermore, Sergeant Walnuts created various mailer boxes which enable Oddy Knocky’s direct distribution channels as well as B2B channels (such as independent coffee shops, restaurants and hotels).
Whitehead expressed his satisfaction with the project’s outcome by applauding its visionary agency: “What I find truly remarkable about my journey with them was starting from scratch and ending up with something that perfectly captures what our business stands for,” he noted. “They carefully crafted our new brand which symbolizes our belief that people should pursue their own path instead of becoming complacent with traditional structures.
Photo shows Oddy Knocky branding displayed on a sandwich board, featuring black multiline type letters ‘O’ and ‘K’, with their playful logotype.
