A vintage café identity rooted in Portuguese cultural symbolism and subtle typographic discovery.
Viana is a vintage-style café that wanted a brand able to honour the heritage of Viana do Castelo without illustrating regional motifs literally. The brief was specific: build the symbol from the Coração de Viana, the traditional Portuguese filigree heart, in a way that also read as the brand's initial. The challenge was condensing craft, region and identity into a single mark small enough to sit on a coffee cup.
The sketches trace a process of successive reduction: the filigree heart was simplified until its internal scrollwork naturally traced a V, without losing the ornamental density that makes it recognisable as filigree. That dark-green mark sits above a vintage serif wordmark, where the V and final A are set in capitals to frame "vianA" with an almost heraldic rhythm. The forest-green, black and kraft-brown palette keeps the brand in a traditional, warm register, matched to the idea of a neighbourhood café with roots.
The result feels equally at home on a porcelain cup, a business card, a kraft envelope or the café's own window. The symbol works on its own as a watermark or seal, while the full lockup serves as the formal signature across stationery and signage. It's a mark that manages to be ornamental without losing function, and vintage without reading as dated.
