Crunch
Coffee and bakery — packaging and visual language — Dubai, 2026
Crunch, Dubai
Packaging, visual language, in-store items
2025 — 2026
Coffee and bakery on Al Wasl Road
Context
Crunch is a coffee shop and bakery on Al Wasl Road in Dubai, founded by a married pair of chefs who came through Noma and Frantzén. Their croissant cereal — dozens of miniature croissants with croissant-infused milk — went viral, and people started coming in for it alone. The venue was growing faster than its visual language.
Where it lives
Crunch occupies a corner of Wasl 51 on Al Wasl Road: a full-height amber wall, travertine, warm wood. The interior and the signage were done by another team — the packaging had to sit inside that room without arguing with it. Hence paper instead of white board, and one orange instead of a palette.
My part
The client arrived with a finished logotype and a brandbook. Only the logotype survived into the work — everything else was rebuilt: the palette, the graphics, the whole packaging line and the objects on the tables. Copy and taglines came from the client; the visual side is mine.
Idea
Take the gloss off. The brand had been resting on saturated amber gradients — we kept warm paper, one orange, and a caramel swirl as the only graphic gesture.
System
Two colours and one texture. Paper the colour of scalded milk, burnt orange on the logotype and the captions, the caramel swirl only where it earns its place: the side of a box, a carrier, a CROOKIES cup. No two items repeat the same layout.
Gradients, seasonal themes and the second typeface from the old brandbook did not make it into the work.
Packaging: the engineering
Not mockups — the files that went to the printer: dielines with cut and crease lines, bleed, tolerances and a spec table on every sheet. The holder and the box are structural work, not just artwork.
In the flesh
Off the printer and into the day — cup and holder in hand, the pastry box, the cold-brew line.
The full range
Twenty-odd items prepared for print. Dimensions taken from the production files.
| Baguette bag | 400×120×80 mm |
| Bread bag | 300×200×120 mm |
| Take-away bag | 350×270×180 mm |
| Snap-lock gable box with handle | 240×120×270 mm |
| Paper cup | 4, 8, 12, 16 oz |
| Clear cup | 8, 12, 16 oz |
| Cup holder | die-cut |
| Cold brew bottle | 120×60 mm, 2 designs |
| Fast-food tray | 235×117.5×40 mm |
| Fries box | 120×70×150 and 90×50×110 mm |
| Inserts and dividers | 235×115×70 mm |
| Sleeve food box | 640×520×100 mm, 3 designs |
| Sleeve food box, small | 160×130×100 mm, 2 designs |
| Sweet box | 160×130×100 mm, 2 designs |
| Cake box | 520×640×100 mm, 2 designs |
| Stickers | 50×50 and 70×70 mm |
| Sugar stick | 60×161 mm |
| Tags | 80×50 mm |
| Parchment | 15×15 and 65×55 cm |