Abraço Espresso

About Abraço

On the corner of 7th street at First Avenue, in an impossibly tiny space shared by a hulking, impressively shined La Marzocco, a kitchen and a turntable, San Francisco expats Jamie McCormick, Mario Hernandez and Elizabeth Quijada craft a wholly satisfying experience of coffee and house-made edibles. Abraço is Portuguese for “embrace” and it’s a fitting appellation.

After an epic breakfast with two friends, we made our way north in search of an antidote to Prune’s bloody marys. Finn’s friend’s recommendation was a new place just north named Abraço. After a few missteps, we located its tiny façade and stepped in from the January cold.

Shocked and pleased I was when my old friend Jamie’s face and curly mop of gray hair appeared from behind the espresso machine. After a few bursts of reacquaintance, he finished off the drinks for the already packed storefront.

The business being a scant 2 months old, and despite the healthy maturity of the interior of the space, they hadn’t yet settled on a visual identity. After a few Americanos and pastries, photographs and a conversation with Elizabeth, I walked away with a good idea about what they were looking for.

Design

The design for the Abraço logo is derived from the neon sign hanging just inside the window, providing warm, inviting illumination at night. The business card uses an orange derived from the actual space, and the back of the card reverses the logo, as if viewing the back of the neon sign. Type is set in Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk.

For the beans, Jamie wanted a set of stamps using similar design elements paired with faces of his favorite customers and friends. Working together, we arrived at a few different designs.