Stellar Cafe (Senior Thesis)
For my first half of my senior thesis I focused on building a brand identity up from scratch based on my real experience working with Demandbase for their rebrand.
The brand I aimed to create was a modern and playful space themed bubble (or boba) tea shop. Target demographic was teens and early to mid twenty year olds when creating this brand. I also conducted fake product creation and photography sessions to utilize for posters and branding materials.
The Process
Gathering mood board material and pitching potential branding identities. I pitched two main ideas to my thesis class - one more set on a "Great Gatsby" / Art Noveau themed tea house and the other a more modern and playful space aesthetic. My peers ironically were the target demographic - and they selected the modern space aesthetic for the brand Identity I would build.
Logo Creation - Started with various ideas and even name alternatives. Stellar Cafe was chosen over Astrolotea to pull away from science vs. astronomy arguments and to keep it simple and more approachable to everyone (even those outside the demographic). This logo is not the finalized logo- just one of many iterations.
Fake product creation and photoshoot - I researched ways that food photography is done on professional sets and obtained professional studio lights, a HD camera, set up a backdrop, and bought neccessary props for the photoshoot. All of the drinks were inedible, and used a whipped meringue as a substitute for whipped cream and "cold foam". The only "edible" part was the kiwi slice on the sunset drink!
Photography editing and illustration poster creation - I edited the photos taken during the photoshoot and designed and illustrated posters around them to create mock promotional work that would be hung in and outside the cafe.
Final Product
Final project deliverable was a branding guideline document.
During this project I took my experience building and iterating on the Demandbase rebrand to emulate and build a brand up from scratch. The final deliverables included posters, a hypothetical website design, branding guidelines, and more.
