Type: Logo Design, icons creation, branding, visual design, and brand style
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Google Docs
Overview
The Whole Bean is a new coffee shop opening in a beautiful and trendy neighborhood in our city that needed a full brand identity.
I have been hired as their Lead Designer to provide visual design and branding for the project.
I initiated the project with careful research about the demographic and competition in order to create the user personas according to our mission and business goals set by our close and constant direct communication between me and the business owner, Gabriel Gonzalez.
The final deliverables were presented in a Brand Style Guide which included a color scheme, typography, logos, icons, social media headers, and imagery.
The Project's Goals
The Whole Bean’s business goals were to be a unique coffee shop, the hub of our community where people come together to enjoy a great cup of coffee, and our fusion delicious menu that stands out from the competition. Therefore, I created a bold, fun, and playful brand identity that would attract the right customers established through our mission. The opening is in three months. So we needed to define a niche in the coffee shop business, finalize the design assets for delivery and stick to the deadline.
The Design Process
Color Scheme
After two revisions with my client, the final color scheme that we agreed on selecting was a palette of yellow, which is the main brand color used in the cup in the logo, it also represents our pastry, bread selection, paninis, smoothies, and desserts we offer in our menu. The green represents our tea selection, and the brown represents our best-seller coffee beans from different places worldwide.
White is a secondary color and is used for body text. Red is our accent color for contrast and accessibility.
The color scheme expresses the joy and warmth that The Whole Bean welcomes our multicultural community and is the place to connect with others through our coffee, food, music, and art. A place that you will want to come back to!
Typography
Barriecito is the main brand font used for the logo, headings, and navigation links, which looks fun, casual, and friendly.
The sans-serif font Montserrat will be used for the menu descriptions and body text on the website.
The typefaces that I selected reflect the laidback, fun, and artistic tone of the brand’s personality.
Logo
I wanted to keep the logo variations simple, clean, modern, fun, colorful, minimalistic looking, and scalable to any size without losing the quality that it can be used on the web and in print, therefore I created the logo in Adobe Illustrator. The final logo is a cup with two coffee beans representing our high-quality beans which is our best-selling product.
The logo variations include the same main logo in white fonts, two beans together and the brand name without an orange cup as a background, and a cream-colored background in a circle. The logo variations can be used for our merchandising, uniforms, web, and print.
Icons
The icons that I created in Adobe Illustrator reflect a very casual and relaxed look that matches the brand style. The icons will be used for the menu, website, and social media. I chose an orange cup to represent their drink selection and a cupcake to represent our desserts.
Social Media Headers
I created in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator a few social media headers for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote social media. The headers display our logo, images showcasing our brand style and ambiance such as people enjoying our delicious coffee, and our beautiful patio section surrounded by lush plants and trees, one version incorporates the hashtag #thecoffeebean in our main orange brand color.
Final Design
Brand Style Guide
In the final Brand Style Guide that I created in Adobe InDesign, the design and marketing guidelines can be found such as the company’s mission, color scheme, typography size and style, logos, social media headers, and imagery including the instructions for proper usage for print, social media, and web.
View the style guide PDF or see the pages below.
Conclusion
I delivered on time a whole branding package ready to be used at their shop, and online. I was very thrilled with the concept because I thought it would be exactly the kind of place where I would like to go for coffee with my friends, catch up and relax in such a beautiful and cozy place full of plants and artistic decoration, just like me. I can't wait to go try it out! Best of all, Gabriel, the owner of The Whole Bean, was very pleased and appreciative of my visual design skills!