Dirt Water Cold Brew
Student Packaging Design Projecct
The coffee industry has been dominated by trends set by Millennials. However, the following generation, Gen Z, has a different way of drinking coffee, and my partner and I wanted to create a brand that was tailored to their habits. According to recent research, Gen Z coffee consumers prefer gourmet, ready-to-drink coffee beverages so that they don’t sacrifice convenience for taste.
Our goal was to design a brand that fits in with Gen Z’s fast-paced lifestyle in all areas. Thinking of the small milk cartons we drank each day in the elementary school cafeteria, we thought making cold brew and latte cartons would evoke nostalgia in our particular demographic. Since Gen Z loves to take food and drink photos, it was especially important for us to create “Instagrammable” packaging and create a viral brand name. We came up with the name Dirt Water as a name that might stir up controversy since it’s typically used to describe bad coffee. Our packaging was inspired by popular Matisse posters as his abstract style is being used in posters hung on many a Gen Z-er’s apartment walls. Dirt Water is unique in that it is one of the first coffee brands specifically for Gen Z.
