Mumbai, India: Premium coffee brand Black Poetry has partnered with independent brand design and transformation consultancy OPEN Strategy & Design to develop the strategic and creative foundation for its entry into India’s emerging carbonated coffee and ready-to-drink coffee category.
As one of the early brands bringing carbonated coffee to Indian consumers, Black Poetry faced the challenge of introducing a beverage that sits outside the traditional expectations associated with coffee. While coffee is commonly connected with ritual, craft and heritage, carbonated coffee represents a more unconventional and contemporary way to experience the beverage.
Instead of adopting visual and communication cues from speciality coffee or conventional ready-to-drink beverages, Black Poetry and OPEN Strategy & Design set out to create a distinctive identity for the new category.
Black Poetry Introduces ‘Coffee, Reimagined’
At the heart of the brand strategy is the idea of “Coffee, Reimagined”, which reflects Black Poetry’s ambition to challenge conventional perceptions of coffee while retaining the craft and quality associated with the beverage.
OPEN Strategy & Design developed the brand around the belief that some of the most influential cultural movements have emerged by breaking established conventions. From jazz and hip-hop to street food and contemporary art, unconventional ideas have often played a role in shaping new cultural expressions.
Black Poetry aims to bring the same spirit to coffee by creating a product and brand experience that challenges expectations.
‘Beautiful Vandalism’ Shapes the Brand Identity
The creative philosophy behind the new Black Poetry identity is described as “beautiful vandalism.”
The concept embraces irreverence in a category traditionally associated with seriousness, craft and expertise. Rather than using disruption simply to create shock, the idea focuses on breaking the right conventions to create something unexpected and relevant.
This philosophy influenced the brand’s positioning, visual identity, packaging and broader communication framework.
According to OPEN Strategy & Design, the approach was designed to give Black Poetry a distinctive cultural voice as it enters a category that is still developing in India.
Packaging Designed to Stand Out on Retail Shelves
For a relatively unfamiliar category such as carbonated coffee, packaging plays a particularly important role in introducing the product to consumers.
OPEN Strategy & Design therefore treated the Black Poetry can as a communication medium, rather than simply a container for the beverage.
The packaging has been created to stand out in crowded retail environments, interrupt familiar category cues and encourage consumers to take a closer look. The objective is to make the can itself an entry point into the Black Poetry brand experience.
By combining an unconventional visual approach with the idea of “beautiful vandalism,” the packaging aims to communicate the unexpected nature of carbonated coffee while building recognition for the Black Poetry brand.
OPEN Strategy & Design Builds the Brand World
As part of the collaboration, OPEN Strategy & Design worked across several key areas of the Black Poetry brand, including brand positioning, packaging design, visual identity and communication strategy.
The resulting brand world is intended to establish a distinctive presence for Black Poetry while helping consumers understand a new way of experiencing coffee.
The partnership reflects OPEN Strategy & Design’s approach to emerging categories: instead of simply adopting the visual language of established markets, brands can create new cultural and category codes through strategic thinking and design.
Black Poetry Founder Rahul Goel on the Collaboration
Rahul Goel, Founder of Black Poetry, said that the brand needed more than packaging as it prepared to enter the sparkling coffee market.
He explained that the collaboration with OPEN Strategy & Design helped Black Poetry develop a brand that could stand independently in a category where established rules and conventions are still taking shape.
Goel said the concept of “beautiful vandalism” captured the spirit Black Poetry wanted to bring into the new space, resulting in a brand world designed to feel unexpected, confident and distinctive.
OPEN Strategy & Design on Redefining Carbonated Coffee
Asparsh Sinha, Managing Partner at OPEN Strategy & Design, said emerging categories rarely succeed by simply adopting the language of established ones.
According to Sinha, carbonated coffee required a distinctive voice and visual identity capable of reflecting the unconventional nature of the product.
He highlighted the importance of the can as the brand’s most powerful media channel, providing Black Poetry with an opportunity to capture attention, generate curiosity and introduce consumers to a new coffee experience.
Redefining India’s Emerging Coffee Category
The collaboration between Black Poetry and OPEN Strategy & Design comes as India’s beverage market continues to see experimentation across coffee and ready-to-drink formats.
With carbonated coffee, Black Poetry is positioning itself around a different interpretation of the coffee experience, combining the familiarity of coffee with the unexpected characteristics of a sparkling beverage.
The new brand identity is designed to help Black Poetry establish a recognizable position within this emerging segment while creating curiosity among consumers who may be encountering carbonated coffee for the first time.
Through its “Coffee, Reimagined” philosophy and “beautiful vandalism” creative platform, Black Poetry is looking to move beyond conventional coffee branding and create a more contemporary expression for the category.
The partnership also demonstrates how strategic brand positioning, packaging and culturally relevant design can play a role in helping emerging beverage categories establish their own identity and consumer language.
Conclusion
Black Poetry’s collaboration with OPEN Strategy & Design marks an ambitious step into India’s emerging carbonated ready-to-drink coffee market. By combining a distinctive brand strategy with unconventional packaging and the creative idea of “beautiful vandalism,” the brand is attempting to redefine how consumers perceive and experience coffee.
With “Coffee, Reimagined” at the centre of its identity, Black Poetry aims to create a bold presence in a category where there are still few established rules—and where breaking convention could become part of the experience itself.
