Studio Avenir’s identity for BSJ treats labels like filing documents

The label looks like something pulled from a roastery’s back-office filing system. Net weight ticked off in three options. Grind selection laid out with hollow checkboxes. Origin field. Reference number. A sheet of perforated stamps, each one a self-contained product form waiting to be torn off and applied. For Brulerie Saint Jacques, a speciality coffee roastery operating a travelling barista and catering service across France, Paris and Lyon-based Studio Avenir has built an identity that borrows the visual logic of technical documentation and lets it carry the brand. The decision to lead with utility is unusual for the coffee category. Speciality coffee tends to dress itself in warm browns, hand-drawn marks and analogue craft cues that signal artisanship through softness. BSJ says no to that. The label functions as a form, with the variables a roaster needs to communicate arranged with the structural clarity of a logistics document. “We designed the label in a way that emphasises the expertise of the roastery, drawing on technical layout conventions,” explains Clementine Cornu Thenard, Art Director & Co-founder at Studio Avenir. Anchoring the system is a modular BSJ monogram that exists in three distinct forms. A bold, condensed wordmark handles primary identification. A hatched, line-filled version reads as a textured, almost printed-on-paper variant that animates labels and tape. A geometric badge mark, set within a soft polygonal outline, behaves like a stamp or seal. Each appears in different contexts. “There are indeed several ways to write BSJ, which allows for a more expressive and flexible identity, while enabling both the old and new lettering styles to coexist,” Clementine notes. “All of these lettering variations also help showcase the research and exploration behind the work.”