Polite Graphic
Illustration
This illustration came to existence thanks to a creative warm up for a design class that was actually intended to be a mural design, but the coffee shop’s owners had other ideas for it when they saw it.
Polite Coffee is my favorite shop in Bryan-College Station, so when tasked at picking a location for our designs, it was a no-brainer. At the time, the shop was going through a rebrand to merge the coffee roaster's brand with its new home, the historic house of Professor Eli Kyle (the namesake of Kyle Field). They had recently built a room on the back of the house to put the roasting machine in, and the back wall of this room is just blank, making it a perfect spot for a mural.
The Process
I first began by listing out different coffee and Bryan, Texas related things as the house is right next to Downtown Bryan and I wanted to incorporate the community into the roaster's local-focused brand. I then moved into sketching these different items in the modular style I was going for and also explored the idea of a similar, more simple, unboxed idea.
Bringing it to Life
Luckily, I knew a few of the staff members, so when I showed their manager the design, he took it to the owner, and next thing I know, I was paid for it! While they did not want it painted on the very blank wall, they did have a few other ideas for its application. After adjusting the layout to fill the three brick spaces, they ended up printing a poster and some stickers of it, making it their thank you card for online orders, and using it for their first gift card design.
