Hey Cutie Coffee & Cocktails
Goal: Redesign the brand identity of a local coffee shop and produce a set of design assets for use in the launch of their new location. Develop a design system for these assets, and create a brand guide for the new identity system.
Tools
Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop
Year
2024
Course
Marketing Design Literacy
In this project, I was tasked with developing a visual identity system for Hey Cutie, a coffee and cocktail bar opening their first location in Calgary. The brand needed a logo, brand guidelines, and visual assets that could be used on launch of the new location. These included a menu, menu board, coffee bean packaging, exterior signage, and posters. All of these deliverables were presented in a brand guide document that would be shared with the client.
Design Process
Design Brief & Research
After receiving the brief for this project, I conducted a review of existing coffee shops and cocktail bars in the city, looking at their logos, visual identities, and signage. I noted commonalities between them, differences between coffee shops and cocktail bars, and generally got an idea of what the existing design for this market looked like.
From the client brief, I identified key themes and secondary themes that felt the most important to the identity of the brand. These words would be what I tried to emulate in my design. I gathered some images of logos that I felt gave off similar feelings for inspiration, and compared them with images I had been provided of the interior of Hey Cutie’s new location.
Logo Development
Following the research stage, I began an ideation phase for generating logo ideas. Using the main themes I had identified from the client brief and the inspiration images I had gathered, I began sketching ideas.
I picked three sketches to further develop into more refined logo concepts, which were presented to our instructor acting as the would-be client.
At this stage, I also clarified the final brand colours, typography, and logo application guidelines.
Final Product
The client (instructor), let me know that he preferred the first option (left). I preferred the second option (middle). I was able to suggest using elements from both by explaining why I believed the second concept was the stronger option, and could be improved using elements from the first. This was agreed upon, and I moved on to refining the final logo design.
Visual Identity & Asset Development
The final product for this project was a brand guide document including logo design, brand guidelines, design assets to be used for the launch of Hey Cutie’s new location, and additional product designs. These assets include exterior signage, posters, menu design, menu board, coffee bean bags, coasters, and pastry bags.
View the entire brand guide here!
Before beginning work on the rest of the visual identity system that would be used to develop the brand assets, I created a moodboard to explore visuals and colours that would match the logo I had developed. I used images of posters and print design that felt similar to what I intended to make, as well as hand drawn illustration and engraving on pottery which I had already emulated in my logo design. I also used this moodboard to help in selecting brand colours that would tie into the themes I had initially identified from the client brief.
The main visual component of the assets I developed was the hand drawn style illustrations, which I created myself in Illustrator. This was paired with a monochromatic “halftone” style of image, which together made up the visuals for the assets.
