Gold Lion Community Cafe
Branding for a cafe in Richmond, Virginia
Branding for a cafe serving up Indian treats and hospitality
Gold Lion Community Cafe is Richmond’s new spot serving vegetarian treats, chai and coffee. Matt and Nafis, owners of the cafe, want to foster a warm and welcoming environment for the community. The vision for their cafe’s branding was simple: a blend of conventional South Asian (mostly Indian) aesthetic and contemporary cafe and branding experience.
The conventional elements, such as the typeface and the orange/yellow hues—recalling the Indian aesthetic—are mingled with layouts that push the elements beyond their comfort. And then comes the Gold Lion. The Gold Lion illustration, designed to be scaled down to just an icon, binds the brand together and represents Matt and Nafis’ vision for the cafe to be a center stone for their community (lions representing the leaders in their pack).
