Celebrating Three Years of The Coffin Bean & Co. | A Relay Pittsburgh Collaboration
My latest Relay Pittsburgh collaboration came with coffee, some local vendors, and a third birthday celebration. I was invited to celebrate the third anniversary of The Coffin Bean & Co., a coffee pop-up with branding that is pretty hard to forget. Between the name, the aesthetic, and the anniversary festivities, this collaboration gave me something a little different to capture than some of the restaurant and food content I've been creating lately.
Instead of simply stopping somewhere for a meal or drink, I got to experience The Coffin Bean during a celebration of three years in business alongside other vendors and plenty of people who came out to support them.
Three Years of The Coffin Bean
Anniversary events are always interesting to me because you're walking into something that represents much more than whatever is happening that particular day. Three years means three years of building a brand, finding customers, showing up at events, serving a community, and continuing to grow. That's especially interesting with a business like The Coffin Bean because the branding is such a big part of the experience. Even before you get to the coffee itself, you know exactly what kind of personality the brand has.
The third anniversary celebration brought that personality to life while also creating an opportunity for people to come together, grab a drink, shop from other vendors, and celebrate the milestone. For me, it also meant plenty of things to capture.
Coffee, Vendors, and Content Creation
Because this was an anniversary event rather than a typical coffee run, I approached the content a little differently. I wanted to capture more than just the drink itself. The vendors, setup, branding, people moving through the event, and little details around the space were all part of telling the story. That's something I've been learning as I create more content through Relay. A good piece of content doesn't necessarily need to focus entirely on the product. Sometimes the atmosphere around it is just as important.
My photography background naturally makes me pay attention to those details, but creating short-form video has pushed me to think about how they connect. I'm looking for clips that establish where I am, close-ups that show off a product, movement that keeps the video interesting, and little moments that give someone watching a sense of what it was actually like to be there. It turns a coffee run into a much bigger visual story.
Come Along With Me
I've already shared some of the photos on Instagram from my visit, and I'm also putting together a TikTok from The Coffin Bean & Co.'s third anniversary celebration.
I've been enjoying having both photos and short-form videos to share from these experiences. They give me different ways to capture the same visit, whether that's a photo that focuses on one detail or a video that brings together the coffee, vendors, atmosphere, and everything else happening around me.
Another Side of Creating Content
One of the things I like most about the Relay collaborations I've done is that no two have really looked the same. I've photographed live music while drinking wine at Dead Head Winery, brought Martin's Catering into the office for lunch, grabbed 3Natives with a coworker, and now celebrated three years of a coffee business alongside other local vendors. The basic assignment might be to create content from an experience, but what that actually looks like changes every time.
That's been good for me creatively. It keeps me from falling into a routine where I know exactly what I'm going to photograph or film before I even arrive. Instead, I have to look around, figure out what makes that particular experience interesting, and decide how I want to capture it. The Coffin Bean already has such a distinctive personality that this collaboration gave me plenty to work with.
Celebrating a Small Business Milestone
There is also something fun about getting to create content around a milestone instead of an ordinary day. Three years in business is worth celebrating, and getting to see people show up for The Coffin Bean & Co. made the collaboration feel like more than just grabbing a coffee. It was a celebration of a local business, the brand they've built, and the community that's grown around it. For me, it was another opportunity to practice creating short-form content, support a local business, check out some other vendors, and spend part of my day doing something a little different. Not a bad way to celebrate three years.