Desert Kid Coffee blends in by standing out

Childhood friends Katie Reed and Joseph Eccles launched their new cafe and roastery in the heart of Coachella Valley, ahead of the iconic festival’s return this weekend. Desert Kid Coffee partnered with New York-based branding agency The Working Assembly to help develop the founders’ exciting new venture.

Coachella, known for crazy outfits and big-name artists, is hosted in California’s beautiful Colorado Desert and has become one of the most popular festivals in the US. While the festival site is a temporary spectacle of music and events, Desert Kid Coffee positions itself in permanence, rooted in the Coachella Valley’s community-driven nature and vibrant environment.

Instead of taking from urban or European cafe tropes, Reed and Eccles looked to the landscape’s colours, forms and cultural references. The Working Assembly used the desert as a source for everything. Not as an aesthetic, but a way to build a premium brand identity defined by its environment, says Jolene Delisle, founder of The Working Assembly. 

“The desert already has such a strong visual language, so we wanted the brand to feel like it grew directly out of that landscape,” says Delisle.

Illustrations and graphic elements were made in-house by The Working Assembly. Icons like Cabazon dinosaurs, hummingbirds, desert superblooms, the chocolate mountains and the valley’s signature purple sunset are used throughout packaging, merchandising and in-store design. The Desert Kid Coffee plays on the child-like nature of the brand by mixing a lowercase ‘i’ in the uppercase workmark.

These decisions came at a time when, in the hospitality sector, the product isn’t enough anymore. Consumers want an experience. A vibrant, playful identity brings in customers and, more importantly, makes them want to say. Desert Kid Coffee is not meant to be transactional — it’s a community hub for people to hang out and feel like they are a part of the cafe and roastery. As Desert Kid Coffee expands, the brand plans to further this mission by implementing live music and coffee making workshops in the space.

Desert Kid Coffee will open its 5,000 square foot cafe on 9 April from 7am to 4pm in Palm Desert, California.