Evan Deterling // Creative Direction

Berlin / Paper & Tea has opened twenty-five new retail locations since 2023, bursting forth at the culmination of a decade-long expansion from a celebrated Berlin flagship to to a spectrum of thirty-seven stores across Central and Northern Europe—with five more on the way. The modernist branding we developed a decade ago with great concern for endurance remains firmly in place. Longevity is a central concern in developing a serious retail brand. Many venture out equipped with ephemeral or restrictive visions that must soon be discarded or revised via disruptive rebranding efforts as success carries them upward. This squanders the brand equity gained in getting there. P & T has instead built upon that hard-won equity by retaining a consistent visual branding and consistent voice. Alongside a curated range of fine tea and accessories, the brand is also expanding into an eclectic offering of ready-to-drink beverages, unique aromatics and artisanally-crafted printed products perpetuating the art of letterpress and lithography. And they continue to expand into partnerships with select names in the hospitality, events and retail space while growing a thriving online B2C marketplace for discerning customers who value exceptional tea, sensory refinements and things of enduring substance and quality.

Brick & Mortar

Applied Branding

Concept

Augmenting the core artisanal orientation, a classic modernity was essential. We were determined to avoid the cliches of nostalgia. This was not a feminine boutique brand; it had to evoke a subtle industrial androgyny. Initial inspiration came from mid-century publishing house logos. I sketched ideas informed by the intricate stylized symbolism common to these marks, but ultimately they proved to be too illustrative to represent Jens’ minimalist vision.

Brand Script Origins

Jens traveled throughout China to mine for tea and tea wisdom and the project took on a more traditionally Asian influence. Still, we sought to expand beyond the dogmatic niche of Asian tradition that typically accompanies tea, presenting tea rather as a creative catalyst in an industrial age. A notable intersection of busy industry and tea tradition occurs in the railway culture of the old British Empire. Following this thread, whilst combing through an extensive archive of boilerplates and cast signage from this era, I happened upon a peculiar sign featuring a wedge-shaped leg on the letter ‘R’. There was something curiously calligraphic and Asian about that detail. Extrapolating other glyphs from this idea, I drew the rough basis for a hybrid modern logotype.

The ampersand, I had always viewed as an opportunity for defining symbolism. I created one as a symbolic abstraction of a teapot within the new angular typographic style. Interestingly, the resulting symbol struck me as being sort-of Japanese-modern.

I originally gravitated towards slightly more ornamental forms informed by our research, however, with his modernist, minimalist vision for the brand Jens asked me to explore simple shapes. The personality transformed from idiosyncratic to clean and austere. Ultimately a simple chamfered rectangle was chosen.

Final Brand Signature Lockup

Brand Standards & Guidelines

Guidelines Book

Etc...