Branding Through Design: Making Your Café Memorable

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Shopfitting Case Study: Melbourne University - Axil Coffee

Branding Through Design: Making Your Café Memorable

Find out key tips to enhancing your branding through design, so your Cafe Fitout is memorable and creates that ‘WOW effect’. In the day and age of technology and a huge variety of choice, humans are more than ever craving that important connection to a brand. Customers want to reward and give loyalty to a brand that they love and connect with. Cafe Shopfitting plays a critical role in a memorable dining experience. Check out the tips below to bring your brand to the forefront of every customer journey and how to stay front of mind at all times!

The Power of First Impressions in Café Branding

First impressions of a shop fitout have a massive influence in customer perception and behaviour. “Business Victoria guidelines for Victorian retailers emphasize that storefront image, especially consistent signage, a clear theme, and an inviting view inside—is essential for attracting foot traffic. Visual communication is key and shows that first impressions drive real business outcomes—making the investment in exterior design and branding far from cosmetic.” Therefore, if you are looking to establish your first cafe shop fitout and are looking to make it memorable, shop signage is a critical factor to consider. Shape Shopfitters recommends allocating budget accordingly to make it a forefront of your design.

Creating a Cohesive Visual Identity

Creating a cohesive visual identity, otherwise known as your brand toolkit, is a critical factor in any cafe shopfitting. Ensure when working with your shopfitting company, you establish consistent colours, fonts, imagery and logos across the fitout. Most business owners will have a primary and secondary colour palette to be used across the design. If you observe the Axil Coffee Melbourne University fitout, you can see the consistent use of tones of colours, to create a consistent theme across the cafe fitout.

How Exterior Design of Cafe Shopfitting Attracts Foot Traffic

What is known as ‘curb appeal’ is a strategy that can convert passersby into customers. Some key elements that can impact curb appeal are the following:

Effective signage: Display your logo with a cool shape and prominent colours that attract the customer into your cafe. Cafe Shop Fitouts are more breakfast and lunch focused, so a warm colour palette is a great strategy commonly used.
Window displays: What people can see through or on your café’s windows from the outside can be a powerful visual marketing tool. It could be decorative, functional, or both – designed to attract the eye of people walking past and invite them in. A display of pastries, cakes, or signature drinks arranged artfully by the window is a great shopfitting element.
Lighting: Warm lighting evokes comfort, coziness, and safety—critical for cafés aiming to attract a relaxed or intimate clientele. If you use Axil Coffee Melbourne University as an example, the palette is warm, minimal, and modern — combining wood, black, and grey with subtle greenery for a natural, calming vibe.

Designing a Memorable Café Interior

Interior Design plays a critical role in cafe shopfitting to give that memorable experience and encourage repeat customer visits. Identifying your target market based on your foot traffic location and environment is super important. Cafe Shop fitouts are more common these days to be aiming for that warm, modern and minimalistic feel to encourage that walk-in traffic. Additionally, some Cafe’s that are in highly populated areas, are focused on speed and ease of service. Whereas other cafe’s with less foot traffic have a stronger focus on seated areas and encourage the customer to stay for a sit down breakfast or lunch.

Axil Coffee is a great example, as a cafe suitable for university or office environments where speed and design appeal matter. It is showing a narrow, linear cafe fitout designed for efficient service in a compact space. Some key elements are listed below:

The space is rectangular and narrow, optimized for fast-moving customer traffic.
Axil Coffee has a counter that runs along one entire side of the space, making the layout single-sided service, to optimise speed and efficiency.
Front of the cafe starts with a display cabinet (showcasing pastries and baked goods) near the entrance, to encourage additional purchase with their coffee.
Moves into the coffee machine area where baristas prepare drinks.
Ends with the pickup point further along the counter, closer to the door, encouraging that quick purchase ‘in and out’ style..

Overall, this cafe layout tailors perfectly to the local environment being at Melbourne University, wanting that quick coffee + food purchase before attending class.

Choosing the Right Color Palette

Your cafe’s color palette is more than just aesthetics, it directly influences the mood, perception, and even how long customers choose to stay. The right palette balances brand identity with customer comfort. For a modern cafe space like Axil Coffee at Melbourne University, a thoughtfully chosen palette helps create a cohesive, welcoming atmosphere.

Start with Your Brand Identity: Begin by aligning your color choices with your brand toolkit. For example, Axil Coffee Roasters uses a palette of natural timber, charcoal blacks, concrete greys, and rich greens—reflecting their emphasis on quality coffee, craftsmanship, and an urban yet natural vibe.
Use Neutrals as a Base: Neutrals like greys, beiges, and concrete tones create a timeless, minimalist base that makes the space feel clean and modern. These shades work well in busy environments and highlight other design features like lighting and signage.
Add Contrast with Feature Colours: Introduce a feature color to create visual interest. In this case, the deep green tile wall adds richness, connecting to natural elements (plants) and evoking freshness—perfect for a café focused on quality, handcrafted products.
Incorporate Natural Textures and Warmth: Balance cool tones with warm timber finishes. Wood brings in warmth and softness, preventing the space from feeling too industrial or cold.
Think About Mood and Psychology:
- Green promotes calmness and refreshment—ideal for spaces where people grab coffee or take breaks.
- Black accents add sophistication and ground the design.
- Warm lighting enhances coziness, encouraging customers to relax.

Layout and Flow That Encourage Return Visits

Strategic layout of your cafe impacts comfort, movement, and customer behavior. Work with a shopfitting company such as shape shopfitters to maximise your interior and exterior space of the cafe to ensure repeat visits. If you observe the Axil Coffee Roasters setup at Melbourne University, they have a modern and minimalistic look, with aesthetic that matches the architectural design of the building with glass, vertical timber cladding, and concrete, enhancing brand perception.

Importantly, Cafe window service and clear line of sight to the entrance supports fast transactions and a casual stop-in culture. Additionally, there is mixed seating options (individual chairs and bench-style concrete seating) accommodating different group sizes. Designing your cafe with these options, encourages those return visits based on that University culture of quick chats and conversation before class. Furthermore, tables are placed in a way that allows good pedestrian flow through the area, creating the perfect cafe layout. If you are looking for a shopfitting company in Australia, that knows how to bring the perfect design to cafe shop fitout, then fill out the Shape Shopfitters Quote Form Online.

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Branding Through Design: Making Your Café Memorable

Shopfitting Case Study: Melbourne University - Axil Coffee