From Bean to Brew: Chava Oropesa for Peet’s Coffee 

Oakland, California-based food and drink photographer Chava Oropesa‘s love for photography and food has turned into his life’s work. Having grown up in Mexico City, his design style and imagery are deeply influenced by the vibrant culture of his hometown, with bold pops of color and dramatic lighting. Touted as a one-stop shop, Chava has the expertise to launch brands from inception to application — whether it be photography, website design, social media content or packaging design. 

On a recent assignment, Chava was commissioned to take bright and bold images for the San Francisco Bay Area-based specialty roaster and retailer Peet’s Coffee. The images were used for marketing the brand across several platforms.

I think my past experience as a creative director allowed me to understand the project not only as a photo shoot but creating marketing assets that would be used across several mediums. I believe my colorful, bold, clean style was attractive as well.

The project came to be after a friend recommended Chava’s work to Peet’s senior creative producer. After an introduction, Peet’s team offered Chava the opportunity to collaborate. Since this was his first time working with the coffee brand, he was nervous to make sure he delivered a high quality product and good experience. Fortunately, the relationship has been seamless ever since. Chava describes their team as “incredibly friendly and easy to work with.”

The complete project spanned over three different shoots and took place at Chava’s studio and the surrounding courtyards. Keeping close to the barista was necessary to replace and refresh drinks quickly.

In the first shoot, all the new drinks were isolated so that they could be used on POP designs, in-store menus, website menus, and apps. The second shoot featured drinks with hand models against colorful urban backgrounds. This was fun because the drinks were shot in the studio and then composited with the background photos. Chava chose this approach since preparing all drinks requires a complete barista station, and he wanted the drinks to look their best. Chava was in charge of creating the composite images as well. For the third day, they used exteriors with hand models and different outdoor settings.

The main challenge was keeping the drinks looking fresh, especially when they were being served outdoors under the sun. One of the requirements is that all drinks need to be real, fresh made. We had to keep a close eye and get the barista prompted to recreate the drinks, all while taking into consideration the timing to bring them outside and get them ready to shoot. It was a lot of fun! 

I loved the fact that all drinks photographed are real, no tricks, fake ice or special styling.

Peet’s is one of the founding companies in the gourmet coffee trade, founded by Alfred Peet in 1966 in Berkeley, California. The company introduced the United States to its darker roasted Arabica coffee in blends, including French roast and grades appropriate for espresso drinks.

My favorite part of the project was the collaboration, it’s always great when the client folds you in as part of their team and you are able to bring creative ideas and solutions to challenges. Collaborating with their creative and production team was incredibly fun, I also got to learn what worked and didn’t work in the past for them on other shoots and that helped me be more efficient and understanding their process.

See more of Chava’s images on Instagram.

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