Keurig coffee machines are a truly iconic product, at least in America. By the end of 2024, the number of American households with a Keurig coffee machine in their kitchens is expected to reach 40 million for the first time.
Keurig Dr Pepper was formed from the merger of two iconic brands, Keurig Green Mountain and Dr Pepper Snapple Group, in 2018. This merger created one of the largest beverage companies in North America, offering consumers a wide variety of beverages. And Keurig is one of the company’s leading coffee machine brands.
Keurig, which officially launched in 1990, revolutionized the coffee world. Founders Peter Dragon and John Sylvan realized that the secret of success lay in an accessory that was the link between boiling water and ground coffee. They called it the K-Cup. It is a tiny plastic container that holds a bag of coffee. Boiling water under pressure enters the K-Cup through the opening at the top and the finished beverage comes out through the opening at the bottom. In this way, the coffee is brewed directly in the container.
In 2018, Keurig merged with Dr Pepper, one of the most famous beverage segments in America, to form Keurig Dr Pepper. And as early as 2024, Keurig Dr Pepper is approaching $13 billion in annual revenues and employs about 27,000 people. The company’s core businesses are soft drinks and coffee machines. KDP’s portfolio includes 125 owned, licensed, and partner brands, including 7 Up, Dr. Pepper, Canada Dry, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Mott’s, The Original Donut Shop, and others.
In the same 2024 year, the company introduced its new startup K-Round, which could turn the coffee industry upside down. Instead of capsules, the K-Round is to be filled with compressed pucks. These pucks do not have a hard shell of metal or plastic-like capsules. The small disks are made from ground or roasted coffee and hold their shape due to safe cellulose. This solution would reduce the cost of hard shells for capsules, which are discarded by the tons every day.
What is Keurig?
Keurig is the name of a manufacturer of coffee machines and coffee. The company both sells products under its own brand, such as Green Mountain coffee, and makes them for other companies like Starbucks, Smuckers, and Maxwell House. In 2018, Keurig acquired Dr Pepper Snapple Group for $21 billion, resulting in the Keurig Dr Pepper Company.
In terms of visual identity, Keurig has come through quite a meaningful path during its history: from a complicated badge, composed of a graphical part and a wordmark, to a super laconic emblem with minimum details and a very progressive mood.
The original Keurig logo from 1998 featured a combination of elegant serif lettering in black, supported by a sans-serif tagline, and a graphical emblem depicting a white coffee cup on a green and blue square, accompanied by a yellow five-pointed star.
The redesign of 2004 has kept the idea of the initial badge but redrew it in a more modern manner. The contoured cup was now slightly slanted and drawn against a transparent background, above the sharp serif inscription, also in black. The yellow star got its shade darkened and the contour extended.
The graphical part was completely removed from the Keurig logo in 2014. As for the lettering, it remained written in the same typeface as on the previous badge, but this time the primary logo had it executed in white and set against a solid black roundel. However, this badge only stayed with the brand for less than a year.
The redesign of 2015 has introduced something new. The Keurig logo concept was completely rethought, and now it boasts an enlarged black lettering on a transparent background. The inscription is executed in a brutal geometric sans-serif typeface, with the vertical bar of the “K” replaced by three solid circles, which represent coffee capsules.
The bold uppercase lettering from the Keurig primary logo is set in a custom geometric typeface, which has similarities with such commercial fonts as Futo Sans, Thicker, or Obviatrade, but with some significant modifications.
As for the color palette of Keurig visual identity, it is as simple as possible, the plain black lines, set on a transparent background represent the progressive and strong brand, which is confident in the quality of its products.