Bubble and toil: Inside Hanna Karraby and James Paris’ eerie branding for a horror-inspired coffee shop

ReAnimator is a coffee shop that draws its name from a 1922 HP Lovecraft short story and a 1985 cult horror film rendition of the text. Recently, the independent coffee roaster approached Hanna Karrabi and James Paris to reimagine its branding – the longtime coffee hub with its own cult following was in need of a change.

On the project, Hanna posits James as “instrumental to the new brand”, having previously worked together on another coffee branding project, Wim cafe. With this trust solidified between them, finding a balance between “Lovecraftian eeriness and contemporary sensibility”, as Hanna puts it, was their mission.

Much like Hanna and James’ project of reinvigoration, the ReAnimator film is about a scientist bringing someone back to life via ‘reanimation’. Hanna describes the camp flick as “part science, part fantasy, part horror, and also just completely weird”. Considering the founders’ dedication to the process of coffee-making – rooted in both the organic and chemical – Hanna and James both knew the roastery required an equally “transformative process”, with a core principle of “complexity and playfulness”.

With typefaces “full of character with contrasting angles and curves” as Hanna says, James’ work involves a similar sharpness. James tells us: “The original branding for ReAnimator featured an illustration system that depicted a full Lovecraftian scene, which Hanna and I really admired for its eerie, detailed elements.” Describing his illustrative process, James continues: “We wanted to give it a more modern, bold look that complemented the analogue typography.”

Scaled down to the skull, hand, and beaker, James’ illustrations are clean and distinctive. Their spatial placement throughout ReAnimator’s branding plays with an absence and presence – caught between the realms of life and death. Similarly, the typography and illustration is both artisanal and playful, “referencing the history and origins of the local roasters, we wanted to introduce something entirely new”, says Hanna. The duo’s approaches can be summed up in the brief Hanna had initially passed onto James: “Make it weird and go with your gut.”

Growing into the brilliant monstrosity that it is, Reanimator’s logo, rooted in the letter ‘R’, quickly morphed as James refined his illustrations. ReAnimator’s mascot was now alive, shocked into life in the same spirit of the occult-like, alchemical concoctions behind the coffee-making practice. Now with a fresh, contemporary look, ReAnimator is reinterpreted for a new plane of existence.