Continuing our celebration of Canadian design excellence, we explore how Station Montréal Design Bureau transformed a beloved coffee institution’s legacy into a luxurious packaging design. When tasked with creating Café Olimpico’s limited edition heritage tin, the studio faced the unique challenge of capturing 50 years of Montreal coffee culture, Italian heritage, and local tradition in a single collectible piece. Their solution blends architectural motifs from Mile-End’s streetscape with classic Italian design elements, resulting in an emerald and gold creation that elevates packaging into art—proving how thoughtful design can transform the every day into the extraordinary.
By: Ibraheem Youssef, Director, Station Montréal Design Bureau
For anyone who’s been to Montréal, there are three things that top everyone’s Must Do List: Montréal bagels from St. Viateur Bagels, smoked meat from Schwartz’s, and coffee from Café Olimpico.
When Italian immigrant Rocco Furfaro established Café Olimpico in 1970, it began as a simple hangout where he and his friends could watch La Liga. Today, people from around the world make their coffee pilgrimage to Mile-End, Montréal, gladly waiting over 30 minutes to experience their traditional Italian espresso and the one-of-a-kind family atmosphere that immediately makes you feel at home.
In crafting the Café Olimpico Heritage Tin, we sought to create a masterful blend of historical reverence and contemporary design that captures the essence of this beloved Montréal institution. Our limited edition packaging pays homage to Olimpico’s rich heritage while setting a new benchmark in artisanal coffee packaging design. Simply put, it’s not just packaging—it’s a love letter to one of Montréal’s most treasured spots.
We wanted every inch of this tin to tell Olimpico’s story.
We drew deeply from Italian visual traditions, choosing an ornate emerald green and gold color scheme that speaks to both luxury and tradition. The tin’s architectural motifs, particularly the domed structure we featured prominently on the front, echo the distinctive architectural elements of Mile-End, where Olimpico first opened its doors.
Every decorative element we incorporated has been thoughtfully sourced from the café’s physical space—from the intricate ceiling patterns to the carved wooden details that have adorned the establishment for decades. Our ornamental framework, featuring delicate, intricate details and geometric patterns, creates a sophisticated visual hierarchy that guides the eye while balancing complexity and clarity.
We incorporated the “Open Da Night” detail as a playful nod to the café’s reputation as a popular nocturnal community gathering space, while our “Edizione Numero 1” designation emphasizes the limited nature of this collector’s piece. The Italian text telling you it’s “Authentic Italian Coffee, in the Heart of Montreal” and “Family-Run Since 1970” isn’t just decoration—it’s Olimpico’s DNA. Even the Lazio eagle made its way onto the tin, watching over everything like it has since day one. To top it all off, we housed our design on a crisp, clean metallic finish, which adds a tactile quality that elevates the entire package from a mere container to a cherished keepsake.
This project is exactly what we love doing at Station Montréal—taking something every day and turning it into something extraordinary. Through careful material selection, refined detailing, and considered ornamentation, we’ve created more than packaging—we’ve produced an Objet d’art that transcends its functional role.
Absolutely Bellissimo.
Each element has been thoughtfully rendered with the same attention to detail that Olimpico brings to their coffee making. By approaching the design process with the mindset of artisans, we’ve created an artifact that honors both heritage and innovation—one that elevates an everyday object into a collectible piece worthy of display alongside the very Italian coffee tins that inspired it.
Available online and at all four of Café Olimpico locations across Montréal.
