Could the humble plastic stool, a staple of Vietnamese street food culture, become the basis for a coffee brand?
The answer is a resounding, yes.
“Deriving from Vietnamese street culture, Guta Cafe grows to be a familiar coffee brand for urban people who could connect and enjoy the outdoor environment. Focusing on a responsive and affordable store setup, they have grown fast, dominated Saigon, and become one of the most popular coffee chains for everyone in the city. Guta is from a Vietnamese verbal slang, from ‘gout /gu’ in French and ‘ta’ in Vietnamese; together, they stand for the ‘our style.’
Street-coffee has become a fundamental habit of not just Saigonese but also Vietnamese. Beneath the habitual culture, there’s always a ‘plastic chair,’ small and convenient to set up anywhere to become a small coffee shop. The graphic system was taken over by the iconic chair as the center, combined with all of the surrounding environmental elements and people’s behaviors. Together, it creates a completely unique style for Guta and echos what the brand comes from. Inspired by the iconic Vietnamese Social Security propaganda poster hanging everywhere in the country, the blue and yellow combination palette was adapted for Guta.
The color palette choice played a principal role in representing the idea “a friend of every worker,” just like the poster’s slogan. Featuring the chair and Vietnamese diacritical marks, we have developed a custom font named after Guta – Fonta. This fon is only for the extension of Guta child brands and special communication tools. After their successful rebranding, Guta has grown from several stores to nearly 60 stores locations around the city.”
