All work

Bakery & café, East Amsterdam/Client/2024

Gebak van Tabak

Dressed Up, Dressed Down.

Role
Design Director: branding, print, packaging
Year
2024 · 4 weeks
Gebak van Tabak — Dressed Up, Dressed Down.

Overview

Esther started Gebak van Tabak making custom wedding cakes. Then she decided to open an American-style bakery in East Amsterdam. She'd never had a professional brand before (plenty of great small businesses haven't), and now she needed one that could stretch over two pretty different things.

A wedding cake is a months-long conversation with a couple. A coffee and a slice is a two-minute stop on the way to work. Same baker, same oven. They needed to feel like the same place.

Gebak van Tabak design work
Gebak van Tabak design work
Gebak van Tabak design work

Design thinking

  1. One brand, not two.

    Splitting it into a wedding brand and a café brand would have been easy, and it would have made both feel smaller. Instead I built one flexible system that can dress up for a consultation or dress down for a Tuesday morning coffee cup.

  2. Modular color.

    The palette works in combinations rather than one fixed set, so each side of the business gets its own mood without drifting away from the other.

  3. Pointillism, a dot at a time.

    The icons are built from dots, which keeps them handmade and a little playful, and they hold up whether they're tiny on a sticker or big in the shop window.

  4. From consult to cup.

    The system runs through wedding materials, business cards, menus, cups, bags and packaging. If you've held anything from the shop, it's part of the same story.

Gebak van Tabak design work
Gebak van Tabak design work

Impact

Esther opened the bakery with her first real brand, one that covers both sides of the business without making either feel like an afterthought.

“Daydrift is an absolute pleasure to work with. Not only for the great quality work that is delivered but in the above and beyond service provided. Think of flexibility, out of the box thinking and helping a starting business by thinking of the details that make you unique and stand out.”

Esther Tabak, Founder
Gebak van Tabak design work
Gebak van Tabak design work
Gebak van Tabak design work