What does a Name look like?

As mentioned in Our Story, our challenge was to build a brand around things we knew and were passionate about, leading us to explorers and coffee.

During my primary school career, I recall a history teacher with a passion for exploration, she went above and beyond to teach us about the great explorers of old. We learned about Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton. She taught us about native Inuit’s and we had to build a “model” sled and igloo from tooth picks in one lesson. In another lesson, we learned about Sir Hillary’s ascent, and to this day I recall the height of Everest at 8848 meters, because of her class. I have a handful of educators that shaped my formative years: an English teacher who has sadly passed away and a Geography teacher that opened my eyes to a different world through mapwork, with whom I still have contact today.

But I digress, why The Explorers Collection? Well, much like the history teacher who went out of her way to inspire us with explorers of old, we wanted to create a brand that inspires others with stories of exploration, curiosity, and pursuing dreams. While selling coffee we wanted to provide customers with an amazing online hub of content to read and listen to about expeditions, projects, inventions, and breakthroughs from all walks of life.

Our brand name aims to be a symbol of this collection of content gathered from all over the world, including abundant room for customers’ own stories, adventures, travels, and expeditions, as a tribute to and celebration of your pursuit of curiosity.

Our logo is a story within itself.

Most companies just abbreviate their name to its initials and then “stylise the letters”. In our case, this would yield TEC. We knew that these three letters could not just stand alone as a logo – we needed something to share in the heritage of global travel and exploration. Initially we thought of using an Astrolabe as a logo, but realised that most people would not be able to recognise this age-old navigational tool and connect it to our brand name. 

A logo or artwork does not make or break a business. But this was important to us as we did not only want to create a business selling coffee, but a brand that was aesthetically pleasing and inviting for our clients to become a part of our community – excitingly anticipating our next podcast or Instagram grid reveal.

We continued to discuss options, including asking for concepts from design agencies, but nothing captured the brand in an authentic manner. Nothing lived up to our one requirement of having a story deeply entrenched in the history of exploration. At a point of giving up, we set out on a hike into the Cape Fold Mountains on a friend’s private property to look for a hidden canyon. On arriving at the top of the hill, we found an old weathered artefact standing guard over the valley, the unit number 1996 engraved at its base and the VOC company logo alongside it.

This was what we had been looking for: a design with meaning and history. Sitting alongside the canyon, I put pen to paper and started sketching the ideas for the company logo. Once back at the office we bounced ideas off one another – internally fine-tuning the design, cleaning up the typography, and eventually stylising the letters to what you can see on our website today. 


Much has changed since 1602, but we still globally trade commodities and we are honoured to specialise in one of them, specifically….. coffee…..!

We look forward to shipping our coffees to your doorstep and you sharing your expedience’s with us.

Sending you off on your next adventure, coffee in hand.

John & Team

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