Steam Coffee Shop

Refreshing a pioneer brand for its community.

  • Coffee shop, HoReCa
  • 2024 – 2025
  • Brand strategy, brand facelift, content strategy, photo, video, social media, ad campaigns, merch, packaging
Steam's three founders sitting on the floor under the stencilled Steam Coffee Shop logo on a pale mint brick wall
Steam's founders, in the shop's first year

A pioneer that started to blend in

Steam opened when specialty coffee in Bucharest was still a niche. A decade later the city had over a hundred third-wave shops, many borrowing the same minimal look Steam helped popularise.

The identity felt dated next to the newcomers, the social channels had gone quiet, and the brand's biggest asset, the people who gather there every day, was invisible online.

A full Steam interior with guests at every table
Barista preparing coffee behind the bar
A guest with her dog at Steam
A full house on a weekday morning, with the team and the regulars who make it feel like home.
A guest seen from behind wearing a green Steam T-shirt

Community, coffee and connection

We started by listening. Surveys and interviews with guests pointed to what they value most about Steam: the feeling of belonging. That idea shaped the brand, the content, the merch and the website that follow.

The result How the brand looks out in the city today Drop for more
Branding& Design

The steaming cup guests recognise stays at the centre, now surrounded by a bolder typographic voice, a palette pulled from the shop itself and a positioning line the team can say out loud.

  • Customer research
  • Brand strategy
  • Brand positioning
  • Logo refinement
  • Logo lockups
  • Typography system
  • Colour system
  • Brand values
  • Tone of voice
Steam logo lockups: stacked, horizontal and symbol-only
Logo lockups for every surface, from cups to storefront
Colour palette: black, blue, green and grey
Black, blue and green, with grey as the quiet base
Type specimen of the N27 typeface in regular, italic and bold
N27 as the single brand typeface
Green brand board reading Community, coffee and connection
The brand idea in one line
Blue brand board listing the brand values
Five values that guide how the team treats every guest
Growth& Content

The content follows the people. We shot the shop across a full season and built a posting rhythm around real guests, the team and the neighbourhood.

  • Content strategy
  • Photo production
  • Video production
  • Social media management
  • Instagram stories
  • Posters
  • Ad campaigns
Friends around a table inside Steam
Season reel and the moments it was built from

Instagramstories

Green illustrated story with the community brand line
Story with two friends laughing and the brand line
Happyness story with two guests
New drink announcement story with latte art
Trust your local dealer illustrated story
Blue illustrated story: Let's coffee some more

In-storeposters

Poster: Community, coffee and connection
Poster: Trust your local dealer
Tall vertical banner with the brand line
Poster with opening hours
Poster: Happyness is part of our daily coffee routine

Photography

Guests seen through the shop window
A guest holding a cup at the counter
Busy interior of Steam
Barista working at the Steam bar
Two guests talking over coffee
ProductDesign

A family of illustrated characters that turned the brand line into T-shirts, cups and a limited 10th anniversary cup.

  • Illustration system
  • T-shirt collection
  • Cup design
  • Packaging design
  • 10-year anniversary cup
Same team The equipment shop has a story of its own. Craft Coffee, the coffee equipment business run by the same team: brand and webshop. See the Craft Coffee case A La Marzocco Linea Micra espresso machine and a grinder on a plinth with a Craft Coffee sticker

T-shirtcollection

White T-shirts with an illustrated character
White T-shirts with illustrated guests at a table
White T-shirts with a cyclist illustration
White T-shirts with a group illustration
The T-shirt collection, one character per design

Printspackaging

Back print of a white Steam T-shirt
Steam takeaway cups on a sunny table
Back print and takeaway cups
A crowd outside Steam on a sunny day

Ne știm de la Steam

A Ricoh film camera on its strap with the Ne știm de la Steam sticker on its body
Guests in green Steam T-shirts drinking coffee outside

Coffee Street

On the same street

Craft CoffeeCraft CoffeeBranding · WebsiteKómpusKómpusBrandARCA ResortARCA ResortPackaging · Caviar · LiveryAntilaAntilaBrand · Illustration · PackagingUNDÉUNDÉBrand · Signage · Merch
Specialty coffee, food & drink branding Brand strategy Video production Social media & content

Final call · Strada Olari 9

What do you dream of?

Fill in your boarding pass and we answer within one working day. You get a copy too. Or just come by: the door is open, the coffee is on.

hi@cromaticstudios.com
+40 728 978 068

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