fluorescent yellow takeaway coffee cup with black lid and the words "serves you right' on

Roast, Glasgow

How do you create a café brand that feels unmistakably Glaswegian without relying on any of the usual Scottish clichés?

For Roast, we looked beyond what Glasgow looks like and focused instead on what the city feels like. Warm, characterful and famously friendly, but with a particular way of expressing it: direct, dry and rarely overdone. There’s affection in the attitude and humour in the understatement.

Our brief was to create something modern, distinctive and impossible to miss. So rather than borrow from Glasgow visually, we built a brand around its personality.

CAFE BRAND IDENTITY DESIGN
DESIGN FOR PRINT

ROAST logo in ornate fluorescent yellow font on a black background
hanging black blade sign with ornate metal work showing a fluorescent yellow ROAST logo
fluorescent yellow background with large black text reading 'serves you right' above the logo for ROAST cafe in Glasgow
fluorescent yellow sandwich board on a Glasgow street showing the words 'Get your mug in here' above the ROAST logo

At the heart of Roast is a simple idea: Serves You Right.

Part promise, part put-down, the line captures the duality we wanted the brand to have. Read one way, it’s reassuring: good coffee, good food and service done properly. Read another, it has just enough edge to make you wonder exactly what you’ve done to deserve it.

That attitude gave us a voice for the whole brand. Short, straight-talking and knowingly deadpan, with warmth hiding just beneath the surface. Get your mug in here. Get a grip. You’ll get what you deserve. The language never tries too hard to be funny. Like the best Glaswegian humour, it simply says what it has to say with a wry smile, a wink, and moves on.

menus clip to a board with fluorescent yellow bulldog clips
a women walking past a shop window with a tote back on here shoulder showing the words 'get a grip' above a fluorescent yellow logo for ROAST
fluorescent yellow business card with a blind embossed ROAST logo on one side and contact details on the other against a green leather surface
a white paper bag with fluorescent yellow handles and the words SERVES YOU RIGHT in large black letters
a bacon and egg roll on a branded piece of wax paper ready to be wrapped
a women in a white t-shirt with 'back in a minute' in large black letters above a fluorescent yellow ROAST logo
a coffee loyalty card being stamped below a fluorescent yellow side that reads 'you'll get what you deserve'
uniquely shaped fluorescent yellow beside a blue pattern cup of coffee on a grey cement table
a collection of used, disposable coffee cups with the words 'serves you right' in large black letters

Visually, we wanted Roast to be every bit as direct. A distinctive typographic wordmark gives the identity character, supported by bold typography and an unapologetically bright acid yellow. Against Glasgow’s stone, grey skies and darker shopfronts, the colour brings its own little patch of sunshine — countering the city's famously changeable weather.

The deliberately limited visual language allows the personality to come through wherever the brand appears. From cups and menus to bags, clothing, signage and the smallest customer touchpoints, words become as important as the logo itself.

The result is a brand with Glasgow in its bones rather than written across its face. Bright, bold and full of character. Friendly, just not too friendly. Serves you right.