Inspired by Coffee, Ugh

My weekend was… sleeplessly eventful. Apart from sitting in on a late-night conference, I was ushered into a cafe called doudoubake.
See, I’m not a coffee guy, but my mum is and she gets her way on the weekends.

That aside, the place was memorable. I don’t remember the last time I was impressed by a cafe – but their branding did.

Walking through the zen-like front entrance gave me a strong first impression.
In fact, it was so strong, that I decided to write about it here to capture the feeling I felt once I walked through the heavy glass door.

The navigation was simple, but effective.
The moment I stepped in, my attention was noticeably directed towards the pastry counter.
That’s pretty protocol for most cafes, sure, but what piqued my interest was the pastry kitchen happening in the background.
I don’t see those often, and it was fascinating to watch the chefs move in precision.

Normally, I’d walk straight to my seat immediately. But I got intrigued by their brand products on shelf.
I remember studying their coffee blends and inspecting the humble-yet-stylish patterns and fonts on their product line.
Usually I’d say “that’s cool, mum” but I was truly impressed. The last time that happened was at Bröom. Story for another time.
Bruh, this is unreal. I am not about to be a cafe blogger right now.

You’d think one would stop there, but I remember taking a moment to observe my surroundings. Like, really look around.
The interior design was brutalistic: textured glass, steel kitchen, brass tables, linen-lined lighting and thoughtfully-reinforced benches.
The more I looked around, the more details revealed themselves.

By the time I left, I was genuinely inspired and curious about how others were experiencing my brand too.

So I asked myself some questions:

• If my website is the entrance, what are my best-selling pastries?

• Should I show what how my pastry kitchen looks like? If so, how?

• What are my brand products? How do I guide people towards them?

• How do I make someone who doesn’t drink coffee, admire my coffee blend design?

• How will I inspire others like how doudoubake inspired me?

All big questions. No answers yet.
Regardless, I knew I had to do something with the surge of inspiration.
So, I decided to experiment with my passion project and created this box as a starting point to consider my own brand product.

It’s rough, but it’s a start.
And honestly? That’s better than a cup of coffee for me.

Thanks for the inspiration, doudoubake.

Heck yeah, Frieren

My attempts at Frieren looking upwards

Side note, this Frieren meme has been circulating the internet so I decided to try it out myself.

It’s a very challenging angle, but the more I kept working on it, the better it got.

And now that I’m looking at it again, I’m flooded by this strange sense of assuredness that we’ll all get to where we need to as long as we put in the reps, even if it’s to failure.
Whether it’s a brand product or a certain artistic finesse of a fictional elf lady, the mentality matters.

After all, you can only fail that many times before success becomes a measured outcome.