Branding

GOTTO

Services Branding · Logo · Packaging

Client GOTTO (concept)

Year 2026

GOTTO: the gotto. label on a green paper takeaway bag

Overview

Some of the strongest identities begin with a memory. GOTTO is a concept café branding project that begins with a childhood toy: a small green car built from two wooden blocks.

The identity translates the simplicity and charm of that familiar toy into a minimal café identity, letting a small nostalgic reference become a distinctive symbol for the brand.

GOTTO: green takeaway cups stacked high, each printed with the toy car mark

GOTTO: the shopfront with the gotto. and toy car signs above the terrace

Challenge

Coffee shop branding tends to reach for the same few things: a coffee bean, a steaming cup, a script that tries hard to look crafted. It tells people what is sold, but rarely why they should remember the place.

GOTTO needed a coffee shop logo with a story small enough to feel personal and simple enough to work at any size, from the sign above the terrace down to an enamel pin.

Solution

We started from the toy. Two blocks, one resting on the other, read instantly as a car, and that is all the mark needed to be. Drawn by hand in a loose marker line, with a few speed lines behind it, it looks sketched from memory.

The wordmark is written in the same hand, lowercase and finished with a full stop: gotto.

GOTTO: the g. monogram above the green block-built toy car that inspired the mark

The identity keeps its parts few: the wordmark, a single g. for the smallest spaces, and the car, which carries the name inside it like a number plate. A deep café green and a warm cream do the rest.

GOTTO: a green menu card signed with the toy car, standing on a plate

GOTTO: an enamel pin of the toy car in green and silver

GOTTO: an iced coffee on a green gotto. coaster

Because the forms are so simple, this minimalist logo design holds up wherever it goes: printed on takeaway cups and paper bags, on the menu and the coasters, cut as an enamel pin and painted large on the café wall.

GOTTO: the toy car mark painted on a cafe wall as someone walks past

GOTTO: a cafe apron with gotto. on both pockets and a toy car pin

GOTTO: a green box finished with a small gotto. label

Even the uniform stays light: a cream apron with the wordmark on both pockets and the car worn as a pin. Simple forms, a quiet palette and just enough character make the café feel instantly familiar.

Conclusion

GOTTO is a reminder that good branding doesn't always need to say more. One small memory, drawn simply, gives the café a symbol people recognise at a glance and remember long after they leave.