Jessica, Julia, Katelyn, Lauren and I created designs for Warmhouse Coffee, based on the Style Guide we created.
Lauren designed the logo, which is reminiscent of a cozy home without being too literal. From a contextual standpoint, the hand drawn look about it creates a friendly, casual, personal feeling. The logo is also on the feminine side. This does not mean that we are a "no boys allowed" coffee shop. However, we are interested in the crowd that will come and stay for long whiles to talk, socialize and create.
We picked three colors to use mainly in our designs. We chose black because we wanted to avoid the stereotypical coffee shop shades of brown. However, we did include one shade of brown; the brown paper bag color. We chose this color because from a psychological context, it looks recyclable, which is important on the East Coast (which is where our store is located). From a social/cultural context, the brown paper bag color reminds us of the days of sack lunches that our moms used to make for us. The burnt orange was included to create a pop of color. Psychologically, orange reminds us of warmth and makes us hungry.
We selected three different fonts to use in our design. Always in my Heart is in cursive and used for headings, KG Skinny Latte in capitals is used for subheadings, and KG Skinny Latte in lowercase is used for the body. We chose these fonts because they are all handwritten, which is more personal, friendly, conversational and humanist. Also, we put the all caps against the soft cursive to create contrast. The powerful capital letters make it clear that we are a coffee shop, even if you had never heard of Warmhouse before.
I was in charge of the packaging design. I created two simple designs: one for our coffee bag, and one for our to-go coffee cups. I originally designed them using a template from Roastar.com, but the design options were very limited. Funnily enough, sketching the design turned out to be the most sophisticated of my options.
Coffee Bag
I wanted to use simple and easily recyclable materials, because our store is on the East Coast. The material for the coffee bag is a thick paper sack, in the traditional brown color. From a contextual standpoint, I chose this material because of the homey feeling we want to create at Warmhouse. This bag is reminiscent of the sack lunch your mom used to make you in elementary school.
The logo and the flavor of coffee are located near the bottom of the bag. This was done to create a more interesting design than being placed statically in the middle of the bag. The closeness of the logo and the flavor use the law of proximity to appear grouped as one. The logo and flavor are both printed in black ink, so they stand out clearly against the brown of the bag. The flavor is in all lowercase letters to create a casual impression.
To incorporate a pop of color against the neutrals, the side panel of the bag as well as the seal sticker are burnt orange. On the orange seal sticker, the words "stay warm" are printed in white cursive letters. From a contextual standpoint, this is designed to create the feeling that we care, and to reinforce our brand. The sticker is also used to draw the eye up from the main focus at the bottom of the bag, and to create asymmetrical balance within the design.
To-Go Coffee Cup
Again, I wanted to use materials with a small environmental footprint. So, I chose to use cups made from recycled paper that is unbleached. This will have the same color as the brown in the coffee bag. I wanted to keep this design really simple, and cohesive with the bag. I put the logo, printed with black ink, near the bottom of the cup. This, again, is more interesting than smack-dab in the center. The customer will have the option to top this cup with a recyclable black plastic lid, or an unbleached paper lid.
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