From sketches to six murmurs:
developing Murmur Room
Murmur Room is my fictional coffee and brunch concept: a place to pause, share a meal, and feel at ease. I wanted the identity to hold two feelings at once: a quiet atmosphere with a little energy underneath, and a welcoming room that still gives people space to settle in their own way.
The name, which “came” to me I forget how, gave me a starting point. A murmur, in French, is a soft, continuous sound: nearby voices, a quiet conversation, the gentle hum of a café. A room gives that sound somewhere to belong. Together, the words suggested a kind of emotional architecture: a space that can hold small conversations, thoughtful moments, and everyday rituals.
FROM EARLY SKETCHES TO A DIRECTION
I usually begin a project the way I was taught in design school: with sketches and experiments. After a broad brainstorm, I gather the three or four ideas that feel most promising. I take time with them and keep digging beneath the surface words to find the meaning and tension underneath. Then I develop each concept through more sketches and material studies—paint, cut shapes, layers, and other hands-on experiments.
With Murmur Room, three routes appeared almost immediately:
MUR + MUR: In French, mur means “wall.” Two walls suggest the beginning of a room, so this route led me to explore space and containment.
Connection & Intimacy: A murmur is a quiet sound shared between people. It suggests closeness, listening, and small conversations.
Surface & Depth: A murmur can be heard on the surface while hinting at something underneath: softness with feeling below.
I chose Space & Containment as the main visual direction. The other two routes continued to shape the brand’s emotional tone and the contrast between a quiet surface and the ideas held within it.
The chosen direction brought the name to life through frames, boundaries, negative space, and forms that feel architectural but still soft. The visual system could feel calm and considered while making room for warmer, more expressive details.
Six icons, one word
The logo developed into six individual icon shapes that come together to spell MURMUR. As I worked with the mark, I started to see the icons as more than parts of a wordmark. Each one could stand on its own, repeat as a pattern, and carry a color across different parts of the identity.
That led to Les Murmures (“The Murmurs”), a collection of six imagined coffees. I wanted each name to feel like a voice in a conversation, so I began each with a personal pronoun: Je (I), Tu (you), Elle (she), Nous (we), Vous (you), and Ils(they).
Together, they trace a small social arc: Je murmure, I whisper; Tu écoutes, you listen; Elle s’attarde, she lingers; Nous partageons, we share; Vous respirez, you breathe; Ils se retrouvent, they meet again. One voice becomes a listener, then a gathering. Each coffee gives one of the six logo icons its own color, origin, and tasting mood:
Je murmure: Ethiopia, in amber, with bergamot, white peach, and jasmine.
Tu écoutes: Kenya decaf, in pink, with red apple, panela, and cocoa.
Elle s’attarde: Tanzania, in bright orange, with hazelnut, milk chocolate, and dried fig.
Nous partageons: Uganda, in cobalt, with blood orange, cacao, and brown sugar.
Vous respirez: Rwanda decaf, in green, with chamomile, pear, and honey.
Ils se retrouvent (rotational beans from different places in the world who are not exporting or not on a large scale but can do small batches with proper authorizations and partnerships with money being reinvested back to the makers/harvesters): Jamaica, in deep green, with orange blossom, almond, and cocoa.
These coffees are part of the brand concept; their origins and tasting notes are ideas for future sourcing and testing. On the packages, each icon can become a repeating color pattern, while the name, origin, roast, and tasting notes remain easy to find.
One story across the room.
The same language can move from the coffee bags to cups, menus, and the shopfront. On the windows, the six colored icons could unfold across the glass and gather around the entrance. On a brunch poster, Les Murmures du Brunch could introduce the menu, with the line Nous partageons le matin—“We share the morning.”
From the first sketches to the six coffee identities, I’ve been looking for a way to make the name feel present in every detail. The icons create a small visual rhythm; the colors give each coffee its own voice; and the idea of the room ties them together.
You arrive. You settle. You stay.
