Kafein

Kafein opened in 2013 on Sherif street in downtown Cairo. It was a small café serving specialty coffee, tea and herbal drinks, along with small snacks and pastries. The owners, Dina Aboulseoud and Nadia Dropkin, wanted to create a calm, friendly space that felt welcoming and social, but that was also well-suited for coworking and studying. The space was quite sunny and bright with white walls and wooden fixtures and the idea was to create a visual identity that would complement the space and give a sense of neat serenity and optimism.

The idea of including birds in the identity came from a doorbell chime box that we found in the space, left behind by the previous occupants. It had a navy blue illustration of 2 birds sitting on branches and we felt it would be sweet and meaningful to incorporate that idea into the brand identity. The hamza from the Arabic kaaf (or more accurately: the miniscule kaaf) was added to the ‘k’ in the icon to create a connection between the name in English and in Arabic. And the circular shape of the logo with the diagonal gap was intended to vaguely reference a coffee bean.

Unfortunately Kafein closed its doors in 2018, but is survived by its sister establishment Eish + Malh on Adly street. The café that has replaced Kafein is called Kapri and has a suspiciously similar logo to Kafein’s, so in a way a trace still remains.