work / kahawani

Kahawani

A coastal coffee brand inspired by Islamic calligraphy and pattern — Hot Coffee. Coastal Soul. The turban portrait is the display logo.

Role: Brand designer
Type: Brand · Coffee · Identity
Year: 2026

Challenge

Kahawani needed to feel like a coastal coffee shop, not a generic cafe. The brief was Islamic calligraphy and pattern — warm, ornamental, and still easy to read on a cup.

Approach

The display logo is a portrait: a man in a patterned turban and sunglasses, drawn in the same line as the calligraphy. The wordmark sits under him. A second portrait, a woman in a hijab, shares the system for signs and pattern work.

Design

Deep red, cream, and a script wordmark. Geometry and coffee leaves fill the backgrounds. The line is simple: Hot Coffee. Coastal Soul. The turban mark is what you see first — on the cup, the sign, the shirt.

Execution

The system goes onto a cup carrier, takeaway cup, storefront, round hanging signs, a menu board, a mandala pattern, and merch: tee plus tote.

Frames

Lockup — Hot Coffee. Coastal Soul

Red Kahawani pattern: a cream mandala of Islamic geometric ornament around a portrait of a woman in a patterned hijab and sunglasses, with coffee branch corners. — Pattern — calligraphy mandala

Menu board

Red Kahawani cup carrier reading Hot Coffee. Coastal Soul, holding two white cups with the portrait mark, on a pink chair against pink tiles. — Packaging — cup carrier

Hand holding a white Kahawani takeaway cup with a red lid, portrait mark and tagline, against a coastal waterfront. — Cup — coastal takeaway

Cafe storefront with a cream Kahawani sign, ornamental K monogram, tagline Hot Coffee. Coastal Soul, and a terracotta awning. — Storefront sign

Hanging sign — turban mark

Hanging sign — companion portrait

Cream Kahawani t-shirt with the turban portrait and tagline, held with a red tote printed with an ornamental K monogram. — Merch — tee and tote

The portrait does the job a monogram usually does. You remember the face, then the name.