Highland Tree Coffee

From the Highlands to Your Hands, Perfection in Every Cup

Highland Tree Coffee is a home-grown specialty coffee brand that began as a kitchen-led passion project into a recognized regional brand in the state of Georgia. Founded by Emebet Mekenon and rooted in heritage-driven storytelling, cultural authenticity, and a deep respect for coffee’s origin.

The goal was to craft a timeless, premium brand identity that honors Ethiopian coffee culture while giving a warm, approachable, and trustworthy brand experience for a modern American audience.

FOUNDER

Emebet Mekenon

LOCATION

Georgia, USA

SCOPE

Brand Strategy · Visual Identity · Packaging Design · Label System

Highland Tree Coffee traces its roots back to the Guji region of Ethiopia, one of the world’s most respected coffee-growing origins, known for its high elevation, fertile soil, and misty highlands that yield coffee with distinctive flavor notes and exceptional quality.

For the founder, this was deeply personal. What began as a shared ritual of authentic Ethiopian coffee among friends and family evolved into a scalable, community-driven brand. Highland Tree Coffee transcends product; it functions as a cultural bridge, connecting origin to home and heritage to community.

The brand narrative is structured around journey and transformation:
from the Ethiopian highlands → careful sourcing → thoughtful roasting → the final cup experience.

STORY

After exploring multiple naming and positioning directions, the client selected the Highland Harvest as a brand positioning which signified the roots of Guji coffee.

The typography system balances classic elegance with modern clarity:

Serif typefaces establish heritage and craft

Clean sans-serif fonts improve readability and retail clarity

VISION

To build a coffee brand that feels:

Rooted in heritage

Honest and transparent

Premium, yet welcoming

Story-driven rather than trend-driven

The identity needed to feel equally at home on a local shelf, in a café, or as a gift without losing its cultural authenticity.

TAGLINE

MISSION

From the Highlands to Your Hands, Perfection in Every Cup

To deliver golden coffee treasures from the highlands, offering an elevated coffee experience inspired by misty mountain regions and rich cultural heritage.

This direction allowed the brand to:

Emphasize origin and elevation

Celebrate coffee as a crafted harvest

Balance premium quality with warmth

Parallel explorations focused on growth and nature, expressed through leaf motifs, branching structures, and organic curves. These forms were used to reinforce themes of cultivation, care, and sustainability, directly referencing the agricultural roots of Guji coffee.

Other iterations explored balance and harmony, translating the smooth, nuanced flavor profile of Guji coffee into symmetry, flow, and visual rhythm. This helped ensure the mark felt considered, calm, and refined, rather than aggressive or ornamental.

The logo exploration began by investigating the coffee bean as a primary symbol of origin, using its form to communicate authenticity, provenance, and craft. Multiple abstractions were tested ranging from literal representations to simplified, symbolic forms to identify a mark that felt timeless rather than illustrative.

The chosen logo synthesizes these explorations by combining an abstract coffee bean with organic coffee plant elements, resulting in a symbol that communicates growth, stewardship, and journey of the coffee from Ethiopian Highlands to the customers cup.

The logo aesthetics are calm, grounded, and natural intentionally avoiding short-term visual trends in favor of longevity, scalability, and brand endurance.