We kicked off our first official global tee design comp, open to the Coffee Supreme team across Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. The brief? Design a street flyer-style tee that looks the way drinking Coffee Supreme feels. You could go wherever you wanted with the concept, but with Supreme turning 30, we were after something that looked at least three decades deep. Oh, and you only had two hours to bring it to life.
Sam Moore from our Brissy team took out the top spot with a hand-drawn design that ticked all the boxes — gritty, nostalgic, and a bit cheeky. His prize included two colourways of the tee printed, plus full bragging rights across the roastery.
We caught up with Sam to chat about his design and what he gets up to at Coffee Supreme.
Q: Hey Sam, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your role at Coffee Supreme?
A: My name is Sam, and I am the newly appointed State Wholesale Manager for Queensland.
Q: Big congrats on winning our staff t-shirt comp. What inspired the design for your winning tee?
A: The brief was to design a tee inspired by vintage ’90s street flyers — something that visually captures the feeling of drinking Coffee Supreme. Embracing a pre-digital, hand-drawn aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from my love of early ’90s punk anarchist visuals led to the concept of the burning roaster.
The original design I submitted was actually a ‘world tour’ tee, featuring the burning roaster on the front and a list of our roasting locations as ‘tour dates’ on the back. Live music has always been a huge part of my life — I met my wife at a gig, proposed on stage at a gig (Shout out Ball Park Music for the help) and even now, we plan many of our trips around touring artists. So, incorporating the live music culture of the ’90s into the design just felt right.
Q: What’s keeping you busy when you’re not at work?
A: I go see a lot of live music and spend a lot of time with my little doggo, Olive. I love hiking and doing some freelance graphic design when I can squeeze it in.
Q: How did you feel when you found out your design was the winner?
A: I was honestly a little shocked! I had no idea beforehand and assumed the winner might have been told in advance, so hearing it announced at a company-wide meeting caught me completely by surprise. I still feel so honoured to.
Q: Do you have a background in drawing or design, or was this more of a fun, passion project for you?
A: All self-taught, but yes, I do, since I was little, I’ve always had a passion for it. I usually focus on more hand-drawn/painted realism pieces, but in the last few years, I've been doing a lot of graphic design and logo work.
Q: What sparked (no pun intended) the phrase "Always Roasting" and the roaster on fire? Talk us through the concept.
A: Following the concept of the burning roaster, which may or may not have been ‘fueled’ by a teeny tiny fire onsite. Always roasting felt like a playful way of embracing the fact that the show goes on and no matter the Anarchy of the day-to-day, Coffee Supreme is always roasting, bringing you the Goods all year round.
Q: Is apparel design something you've done before, or was this your first crack at it?
A: I have designed a few shirts, actually - my last one was actually for an accounting firm that wanted an ‘American Western’ style tee for the team, which was equally strange and fun to design.
Q: We hear there’s another staff comp in the works. Think you’ve got what it takes to go back-to-back?
A: The optimist in me is yes, I've got a title to defend now.
Q: And finally, what's your go-to coffee order?
A: Ohhh - Start with a Batch brew, End with an Oat flatty. The dream team.
Grab yourself an Always roasting Tee here.
