Studio Blend
The place you never knew you needed.
If you aren’t caught up on my journey so far, then start here: The Final Year.
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Who am I? I’m Courtney, a senior in the Digital Media program at Maryville University, who studies remotely from Oregon. The digital media major crosses my passion for creativity and my current job skills within the coffee and marketing industry. I am making my way through my final year of school and currently working on the grand finale project of all projects, The Capstone. The capstone is a milestone for seniors where you highlight your skillset in a project of your choice. The design topic I chose is branding, which is where I hope my career takes me after graduation. We have made it through the ideation stage, research stage, main logo design, social media mockup designs, and merchandise designs, and are officially down to just two projects left. It has been a cyclical process in some ways and an ever-changing and adapting process in others, but I’ve learned so much already.
My Concept
My project, Studio Blend, is building a brand identity for a hypothetical business. I chose the underlying theme of community and decided that a combined business model of a third-wave coffee bar in the middle of an art studio space would allow me to explore my theme fully. Think of a space that evokes authenticity, openness, and eclecticism. I will build this into my brand identity, merchandise mockups, social media mockups, and event poster mockups. It will allow me to showcase my branding, color, conceptualization, and organization skills and align my portfolio with my intended career path in branding. Throughout my process, I will use design to marry the elements and ideas of both coffee and art together.
My Logo
For my logo, I wanted to find a way to marry the elements and ideas of both coffee and art together. During ideation, I explored different identity types and stylized font combinations to guide my initial sketching. I found that despite a range of coffee elements and art elements in my sketches, the design I was continually drawn back to was the idea of latte art and abstraction. I used this to create a stylized abstraction of one of the most common latte pours, a rosetta. When choosing a color palette, I decided to utilize a color range within the realm of primary colors that would incorporate an element of art and allow flexibility in the logo’s use. It will allow for an artistic interpretation of the logo depending on the avenue that is held within to keep the feeling of expression and creativity rolling in the continued design work. I went through many iterations of this logo to fine-tune each element. The biggest most consistent changes were in the design orientation and the styling of the font through the guidance of my peers, professor, and professional reviewer.
My Menu
The next step was to create the first product design for the brand: the menu. The cornerstone for every coffee shop and the creative base for the art studio. I wanted to come at the design from the art aspect and bring the coffee elements in with the design work itself. I initially envisioned a tabletop book, but with guidance from my peers, I redirected to a brochure. For in-house patrons, it allows for a supplement to display menus to gather information on both aspects of the business, but would also transform into a built-in flyer to take away. I wanted something that was both refined, but playful in design and would be the avenue to bring varying assets of other design work to one place with nods to the other elements. This design piece underwent the most dramatic shifts with page size, color choices, negative space, sketch use, pricing formats, and font alterations. Based upon feedback from my peers and reviewer I altered the color story, pushed for intentional use of colorways, added the coffee icons into the background, included sketched art supplies, and added more textual hierarchy with font sizes.
My Social Media Mockups
The next step in my process was to create an idea of what the online presence would be for Studio Blend and figure out how the design concepts from the previous designs would translate into the digital form. I wanted something that felt vibrant and aligned with the artistic vision of Studio Blend. I wanted the voice to feel authentic and familiar but cultivated. For the visual elements I wanted to utilize cafe imagery as the canvas to lay artistic elements over the top of. The video (which you can find here: Studio Blend Video) is a timelapse of drawings behind a cafe scene. The subtlety of the video is what holds the power of the design for a thoughtfully curated moment .The scene with two friends sharing coffee instills the buzz words for the brand with handwritten elements and underwent refinements to the line weights, placement, and colors based on feedback received in critiques and discussion boards.
My T-Shirt Mockup
The next step felt was to start merchandising with a t-shirt and mug design. The t-shirt I wanted to feel clean and colorful. A design that felt approachable to any art or coffee lover, even outside the Studio Blend bounds. I wanted the idea to be that someone on the street could wear this without feeling branded or like a walking ad, but rather feel like a part of the Studio Blend community. I wanted to give people something that would lighten their mood when they reached for it and be a graphic tee that could be considered a staple in someone’s closet. I utilized elements from the menu backgrounds with more details and color for the main graphic with the word mark and logo design element featured in less prominent locations. This design needed a few placement and size adjustments on the logo elements, but otherwise, this received good feedback as a whole with the initial elements.
My Mug Mockup
The other piece of merchandise I developed was for a mug design, a staple to any coffee shop lineup. I wanted this to be able to play on the artistic elements of the business and be that go-to mug for any artist that came through the shop. The phrasing “not a paint cup” plays on that relatable moment whereas a painter, you grab the wrong cup for sipping. I wanted to use the handle as a feature for the design where the painter left their mark throughout their work. I chose to do this mockup on a pottery-style mug to echo the idea of craft and handmade pieces to tie into the idea of community within Studio Blend. This design was originally wrapped around the entirety of the mug without the logo mark on the back and through peer feedback with legibility in mind I redesigned the size of the design to be two-sided and equalized the individual font elements as well.
My next steps are to produce poster mockups for Studio Blend events and then to bring everything together in a brand identity with assets and use principles. I will say I am feeling the pressure of the end coming with this project and wrapping everything up with a shiny bow, but seeing the progression with the revisit this last week to each design gave real perspective on how far I’ve come with developing these designs and the voice of this brand. I’m excited to see how the next few weeks go and what Studio Blend becomes through that.
