Simple Kaffa drew Ethiopia’s coffee forests into a logo.

Simple Kaffa is a lesson in a logo with a story inside it. Founded around 2011 in Taipei by Berg Wu — the 2016 World Barista Champion (the first Taiwanese and second Asian ever to win) — it is an independent roaster and café whose Huashan flagship, a restored old house, opened in 2019.

Its identity is a piece of quiet conceptual design. The logo, by Taiwanese designer Aki YJ Chen, is a set of minimalist geometric shapes depicting the wild coffee forests of the Kaffa region of Ethiopia — coffee’s birthplace, and the source of the brand’s “Kaffa” name. Overlapping planes create five distinct tree “colours,” a layered depth meant to mirror coffee’s multi-dimensional flavour: “within simplicity, the flavours of Kaffa are revealed.” The packaging follows suit — a sticker system where a different graphic pattern per bean is keyed to its flavour and processing, so customers link a taste to a visual memory. (The flagship interior is by a separate studio, II Design.)

(Honest notes: Berg Wu is the 2016 World Barista Champion, not merely a Taiwan champion. The graphic identity is by Aki YJ Chen; the interior is by II Design — two different credits. Simple Kaffa was ranked the world’s #1 coffee shop by Big Seven Travel in 2019, not a current title. And there’s no official brand hex, so the tones here are an unofficial interpretation.)

Simple Kaffa lives in a forest-green palette. Click a swatch to copy the hex.

Simple Kaffa’s identity is natural, layered and quiet — an ink, a forest, a sage, a clay, and a cream. The palette is a layered green — the register of a mark built from overlapping trees, nature-driven rather than loud. It signals origin and depth rather than spectacle. The honest caveat: with no published brand hex, these tones are an original, unofficial interpretation, not first-party values.

The lesson is a layered green signals origin and flavour depth. Simple Kaffa’s world is a geometric forest on a calm ground. For designers, it is a reminder that a restrained, nature-sourced palette reads as considered and rooted — right for a concept drawn from coffee’s birthplace. The takeaways: build the palette from the idea (five tree greens); keep the ground calm; let a sticker system carry per-bean colour; and treat any single hex as unofficial, using ink for small text.

The register is a modern sans — clean, calm, considered.

Simple Kaffa’s identity carries a clean, calm, considered spirit — a conceptual mark and a lot of restraint. A modern sans captures the mood: it is quiet and precise, the register of contemporary Taiwanese design. Set in a forest-green palette, the modern sans feels clean and considered — exactly the personality Simple Kaffa carries. It is calm rather than loud, mirroring a mark that hides a forest in plain shapes. (Simple Kaffa’s real logo and stickers are works we describe but do not reproduce, and the exact typeface is not ours to use.) Because it is not ours to use, the honest description is “a modern sans spirit,” shown here in a stand-in. The type behaves like the brand: clean, calm and considered.

Simple Kaffa stands for a forest hidden in a simple mark.

Simple Kaffa is a lesson in making a concept the identity. A forest-green palette, a modern sans and a logo drawn from Ethiopia’s coffee forests make idea-first design the whole brand — calm, layered, rooted. The concept is the differentiator. The differentiator is a nature-sourced, flavour-coded identity.

For designers and brand-builders, Simple Kaffa offers a clear takeaway: hide a story in the mark. The lessons: build the logo from a real idea (the Kaffa forest, five tree colours); let colour and pattern encode flavour (the sticker system); and keep the register calm so the concept reads. It is also a reminder to stay accurate: Berg Wu is the 2016 World champion, the graphic and interior have different authors, and the palette here is an unofficial interpretation. Simple Kaffa made a concept the brand — proof that a story inside a mark can be the difference.

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