Generic Coffee

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IT’S NOT ALL THAT SERIOUS
The Story of Generic Coffee

In 2019, I quit a corporate-ish job with nothing lined up. It just wasn’t a great fit and I knew it pretty early on. Why delay the inevitable? If anything, I think I held on a bit too long.

After a couple weeks of applying to jobs and watching lots of mid-day SportCenter, I found myself in a familiar place — my family’s screen printing shop. At this point, between breaks from college and multiple stints of full-time work, I’ve spent literal years of my working in that building/. Well, we moved once so it’s two buildings but that’s not the point.

Now, working in a screen printing shop isn’t glamorous by any means. The days are long, hot, and sticky! I’d spend hours standing over the washout booth (essentially a shower stall on waist-level stilts) cleaning and re-claiming screens after a full day of printing by hand. If I’ve lost you, just take my word, it wasn’t a lavish wfh desk job with employee appreciation days and flex schedules. It was a much more grueling job than the one I left but I loved it. It’s the kind of place you wouldn’t necessarily be surprised to find Mike Rowe.

Despite loving the work, an exponential increase in time spent with my dad, and having the time for a mental reset, I knew I’d have to “figure it out” sooner than later. You’d have to ask him, but I don’t think my dad was as excited to have me back as I was to be there.

Even with his success (I’m extremely proud of my dad and his business), he’s pretty convinced “success” comes from a traditional, linear career path; school → maybe grad school → job with benefits → steady career growth as a reward for hard work. We often have conversations about the expectations of what a college degree gets you in the job market vs. what someone can build on their own. We don’t often agree on the topic.

Anyway, I started thinking really hard about what I should do next. I was at a complete loss. Then, one day, while sitting on the back steps of the the shop, explaining how lost and confused I was about the whole “career” thing, he turned to me and said one of the most encouraging things that’s ever come out of his mouth. It was something like…

I was floored. Caught off guard. Maybe even confused. For just about as long as I can remember, my dad has pretty adamantly steered me away from anything creative. I have vivid childhood memories of telling my dad I wanted to be a graphic designer (he’s self-taught and I was always pestering him to show me around Illustrator without using all of his hotkeys and shortcuts) and he just sort of brushed it off, exclaiming I’d find something better or more worth my time.

On top of all that, I’m not so sure either of my parents knew what I did for work before this moment, and I don’t think they know what I do for work now, so I suppose social media and web “stuff” was his best guess. And, to be honest, it wasn’t soooo far off.

My dad’s words of encouragement that day were, both, meaningful and impactful, especially the coffee shop on wheels. I asked him about it later and according to him, at some point in the year-ish prior, I had mentioned seeing a coffee van truck, and said a it was an interesting business to build. Honestly, I don't remember any of that. How he remembered it, I don’t know — maybe he made the whole thing up as some elaborate motivation scheme.

So anyway, what my dad said was true… I do love coffee. But I also have serious doubts about any person who doesn’t. I’m well aware off is by no means a novel taste or interest.

On a deeper level though, a walk to the neighborhood coffee shop for a coffee and a pastry is legitimately the perfect Saturday (or Sunday) morning if you ask me. And, since that back steps career conversation, I haven’t been able to shake the coffee shop on wheels business from the back of my head. By that, I mean I know how much a sprinter van costs, the costs to make it food safe, where to buy industrial coffeemakers & espresso machines, who to contact to buy wholesale beans from my favorite roaster, where to get the permits, and the number of coffees and doughnuts I’d need to sell to reach the breakeven point on the startup costs.

At some point, I started referring to the idea as Generic Coffee. I don't know why, but it's stuck thus far. I don’t really think I’ll be opening a coffee shop (on wheels or otherwise) anytime soon, but it turned into a fun creative prompt.

In addition to the spreadsheets, contact lists, and other docs outlining the costs, potential revenues, and so on, I have “Generic Coffee Logo Concepts.ai” sitting in the top right corner of my desktop. It’s full of at least a dozen design concepts that I revisit from time to time.

Over the past couple of years, Generic Coffee has slowly become some sort of symbol or North Star for my outlook on life, my career, and what not. It’s a little bit of an escape as I do my little “world building”. There’s the mock business plan, brand identity concepts, and the deal to become the “presenting sponsor” of The Grocer. The “presenting sponsor” bit makes me giggle every single time.

In some ways, you can sum up my outlook with, “it’s not all that serious.” I thought it was, but turns out, it isn’t. Life isn’t all about one thing. It’s about a million little things that contribute to making you “whole” which might mean a number of things. Depending on your perspective, it could mean happy, satisfied, fulfilled, etc. Sometimes what you think it means will change throughout your life, or even day-to-day.

I recently stumbled across (found it on TikTok, of course) this Kate Forster blog/ short story/ snippet that did an awesome job outlining this idea. If you have four or five more minutes, it’s worth a read. If not, the gist is this…

1. Purpose is bullshit. People being told they have to have a ”purpose” makes them feel like they haven’t hit their KPIs for life.

2. Strive instead for a curiosity driven life. One where you try things, share them with the world or absolutely nobody.

3. Not everyone’s purpose is their job. Actually, very few people’s purpose in life is their job. We put too much pressure on our career to be everything and more.

With that, I’ll leave you because, well, this has spiraled from a story about some silly logos I created in my spare time to something much deeper than I anticipated. Whoops!

If you stuck around this long, I appreciate you! Hug your friends & family, and don’t take everything so seriously.

If you have your own fake business (or even a real one) you’d like to see mentioned in The Grocer, fill out this form and I’ll get back to you! ✌🏻

OTHER
While I’m OOO 🛩️

Immersive Sports Viewing ($)

• Cosm Venues is building huge sports-specific theaters with concave screens, almost like miniature versions of the Sphere. I think this is absolutely incredible, and I’ve been waiting for, dare I say expecting, something like this since 2013 when I wrote a paper about the future of sports viewership, ticketing, and technology. My paper focused on the potential to give at-home viewers the in-stadium viewing experience through virtual reality which would open additional ticketing avenues but you can see how each model could change sports (plus converts and other events) viewership, revenue, and more.

Spotify’s New Font

• Partnering with Berlin-based Dinamo Typefaces, Spotify announced their custom variable typeface, Spotify Mix. Users started seeing the new typeface within the in-app and desktop experiences starting in May of 2024. Totally necessary? No, but very cool! I appreciate anytime a brand has their own unique, custom typeface and give them extra credit when they promote it and the creative teams that worked so hard to develop it. Spotify says the sans-serif typeface blends classic and contemporary styles, including subtle shapes of sound waves, evoking a rhythmic feel that is “quintessentially Spotify.”

New Balance’s “Run Hub”

• Chris Davis, Brand President & CMO of New Balance, recently posted about shifting retail’s sole intent from sales and revenue to something more encompassing — an intent to manifest brand vision and experience. The new “Run Hub in Shanghai, China does exactly that, similar to the elevated experiences you’ll have with Aimé Leon Dore or other brand-led companies. Personally, I think we need to take a similar approach to digital properties — less “new product, but this” and more story-telling & experience that helps develop brand affinity.

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