Costa Coffee rebrand — three branded cups with new latte art mark sitting on a bed of photorealistic coffee beans, rendered in Blender Cycles
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PARTNERSHIP BRIEF — COSTA COFFEE REBRAND

Brand Identity · 3D Visualisation · Packaging Design · Research

A partnership brief requiring the rebrand of a recognised high-street brand. Costa Coffee was selected as the subject, with the objective of pulling the brand back to its original identity as a warm, welcoming coffee shop specialising in artisanal coffee.

The research phase covered Costa's history, founding principles, and competitive landscape across the UK coffee market. The strategic direction focused on reconnecting the brand to its craft coffee roots — stripping away the corporate visual language that had accumulated over decades and replacing it with an identity system grounded in the artisanal positioning the company was originally built on.

The rebrand delivered a revised mark, updated colour palette, and full packaging system. All product mockups were rendered in Blender using photorealistic lighting and material setups, demonstrating the new identity across cups, packaging, and environmental applications. The 3D visualisation pipeline allowed rapid iteration on packaging concepts without physical prototyping.

YEAR

2025–2026

TOOLS

Blender, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

ROLE

Sole designer

CONTEXT

University — Partnership Brief

PROCESS

Photorealistic coffee bean close-up render against deep red background — material study for the Costa rebrand research phase

01

RESEARCH

Competitive analysis across the UK coffee market alongside deep research into Costa's founding story and brand evolution. Historical brand positioning was mapped against current market perception to identify the gap between the company's artisanal origins and its current high-street identity. This research phase established the strategic foundation for the rebrand direction.

Revised Costa Coffee identity system — latte art heart mark and wave pattern on warm gold background with vertical logotype

02

IDENTITY

A revised mark and colour system designed to signal craft and warmth rather than corporate scale. The new identity draws from coffee culture visual language — latte art motifs, warm tonal palettes, and typographic choices that reference independent coffee shops rather than chain retail. Every element was tested against the brand's need to feel approachable and artisanal.

Top-down Costa cup lid surrounded by spiralling coffee beans — photorealistic 3D mockup rendered in Blender Cycles

03

3D MOCKUPS

All packaging and product visualisation was executed in Blender with Cycles rendering. Photorealistic cup renders, coffee bean close-ups, and packaging compositions were built to demonstrate the rebrand across physical touchpoints. The 3D pipeline enabled rapid iteration on packaging variants and environmental context shots without physical prototyping.

Costa Coffee 3D sign mockup on brick wall — environmental brand application showing the revised identity at scale

04

CAMPAIGN

Final deliverables included the full brand identity system, packaging designs across cup sizes, environmental mockups, and a presentation deck articulating the strategic rationale. The campaign materials were designed to demonstrate how the rebrand would function across Costa's existing physical and digital touchpoints.

OUTCOME

Three branded Costa cups on a bed of coffee beans — photorealistic 3D render showcasing the new identity
Single coffee bean falling against a deep red gradient — photorealistic Blender Cycles render
Croissant bag packaging with wave pattern — retail packaging design for the Costa rebrand
Scattered coffee beans on warm brown background — photorealistic 3D render

This project tested whether a heritage-recovery strategy could work for a brand that had outgrown its origins. The 3D visualisation pipeline proved essential — rendering packaging concepts at photorealistic quality allowed the rebrand to be evaluated as a tangible system rather than a flat identity exercise.