Rocket Espresso
More than a machine.
My role
Creative direction
Brand development
Digital and print
Photography and social media
A relationship that began in Rocket’s early days and grew across the brand, from its first website to the experience of meeting it out on the road.
The starting point
Find the people
who would care.
Rocket had a product with a strong point of view and a limited budget to introduce it to the world. Coffee enthusiasts were a natural audience. Cycling offered another connection, through a shared appreciation of good equipment and the ritual of a coffee stop.
Working closely with Andrew Meo, I helped develop how Rocket looked and communicated. The aim was to give people a reason to feel connected to the brand, well beyond the specifications of a machine.
Creative direction
One brand, wherever
you encounter it.
My work reached into most parts of the brand. It included the website and printed material, as well as photography and the day-to-day social presence. There were limited-edition machines and collaborations, with each bringing its own context.
The job was to keep a clear sense of Rocket through all of it. Sometimes that meant shaping a larger idea. Often it meant attending to a small detail that a customer would notice.
Out in the world
Taking Rocket
to the roadside.
The pop-ups at the Giro d’Italia gave Rocket a physical presence within cycling. The brand became somewhere to stop for a coffee, as well as something people followed online.
I worked on the creative direction and material around these events, alongside photography. Those real encounters gave us stories to bring back into the wider brand.
A continuing conversation
The people around Rocket.
Social media gave the brand a way to stay close to its customers. The content moved between the machines and the people who used them, including the cycling community.
My involvement covered photography and social media work, helping maintain a recognisable voice and visual approach over time.
The original website
The same care,
on screen.
I designed and built Rocket’s first website in Adobe Muse. It brought the product range together with the story behind the machines and information for their owners.
The product and support imagery below comes from that website’s working archive. It shows the attention given to presenting the machines and helping people get more from them.
After the purchase
Part of the everyday experience.
The work continued into brochures and press releases, as well as domestic and commercial manuals. These are the parts of a brand that people use, keep and return to.
A manual needs to be useful. Giving it the same care as the machine’s presentation makes the whole experience feel more considered.
The wider picture
A lasting creative
relationship.
Rocket is an example of what can develop when creative work is part of a business over time. The expression evolves, while the attention to the brand stays consistent.
That continuing involvement is a significant part of how I work today.