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CASE STUDY · '26Brand & IdentityPackagingWeb Design & Build
Nocturne Coffee

A late-night brand for coffee that doesn't sleep.

A specialty coffee brand built for 11pm cravings, 3am coders, and 6am shift workers — across packaging, retail, and a DTC site that runs all night.

NOCTURNE COFFEE · '26
Nocturne
drinknocturne.co
INDUSTRY
Food & Beverage
REGION
Miami, FL
ROLE
Lead studio of record
DURATION
8 weeks · concept to launch
YEAR
'26
// 01 · THE BRIEF

What needed to change.

Nocturne came to us with a strong product (single-origin specialty beans roasted dark for late-night drinking) and the wrong brand for it — a generic warm-tones identity that read like a daytime third-wave shop. They needed a brand that owned the after-dark category their product was actually made for.

// 02 · OUR APPROACH

How we tackled it.

We threw out the warm palette and rebuilt around a midnight-purple base with hot magenta and amber accents — a system that reads loud on a bag, on a feed, and lit from inside a bodega cooler. We designed three packaging tiers (12oz retail bag, 5lb wholesale, single-serve drip) on a single recyclable substrate and a DTC site that defaults to a dark theme regardless of OS. The wordmark is set in custom-drawn italics with a deliberately long crossbar on the 't' — a small detail you only notice at 2am.

// 03 · THE OUTCOME

What changed.

Nocturne launched in 6 specialty retailers and on Shopify within 10 weeks. The brand has been featured on Brand New, picked up by 14 additional retailers across the Southeast, and grew DTC subscription revenue 312% in the first quarter post-launch.

// BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT THE WORK
ACTUALLY DELIVERED.

+312%
DTC subscription growth Q1 post-launch
20
retail accounts in first 90 days
8 wks
concept to shipped product
1
Brand New feature
// PROCESS.LOG

HOW IT
CAME TOGETHER.

STEP 01
Mood + competitive landscape — 40 brands audited
STEP 02
Wordmark explorations — 3 directions, 1 winner
STEP 03
Packaging dieline + production mockups
STEP 04
Shopify theme + custom dark-mode product page
// CREW

Who shipped it.

  • Strategy
  • Brand design
  • Type
  • Web design
  • Web dev
  • Packaging production
"
They delivered a brand system that looks great and a website that ships. Most studios pick one. Avant Garde gave us both in 8 weeks.
Maya Chen
Head of Brand, Nocturne Coffee
// 07 · THE NETWORK

ONE NODE IN A
BIGGER SIGNAL.

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// PARENT OPERATIONLIVE

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