1 justin sooter

Branding Process Book

project
 table of contents
3 Design Brief
4 Research
5 Mood Board
6-7 Brainstorming
8 Thumbnails
9 Roughs
10-11 Comps
12-13 Final Solution
14-15 Design Narrative
design brief
The challenge of this design is rooted in
years of cliche and copies. Tea, being a
worldwide product, has changed very
little, however the brand marketing of
this luxury beverage is capitalizing and
aligning with the culture of fads, trends,
and associative consumerism that is
prevalent in American culture. The
design would need to consist of a visu-
ally enticing logo that exemplifies the
historic understanding of tea, yet have a
modern blend of color, texture, and style
that sets the brand in strong comparison
to competitors. The target audience is
of a wide range consisting of anyone
between 15-35 years of age, within an
economically liberal household, living it a modern, popular, and different
in metropolitan areas where the demand product. The design will be influenced
of specialty drinks is common. Com- by the old conception of tea brands,
petitors such as Lipton, Typhoon, and with the outlook and style of new and
Bigelow are brands that are historically modern oriented marketing.
simple in their marketing and sales be-
cause there is always a demand for their
style of tea. Newer brands like Celestial,
Tazo, and Honest Tea are brands that
capitalize on the organic, natural, and
new market that is more vastly populat-
ed by young people. It is my goal, as a
designer to make a brand identity that
stands out as a new product that relates
to the past history of the consumer good
while visually and idealistically making
3
research
As a brand that is trying to be
different, new, and enticing, I
thought it was best to review what
competitors we doing to market
their teas. Lipton, one of the most
common household brands, makes
a large variety of teas, however they
specifically market new flavored or
natural teas to a younger generation
of tea drinkers. Likewise, Tazo and
Celestial market their teas to the
younger range of consumers, seeing
how Tazo tea products are sold in
Starbucks coffee shops, their parent
company, and Celestial, by creating All imagery below is property of the
sweet, uncommon flavors market specific tea manufacturers: Lipton,
themselves to younger and more Tazo, and Celestial Seasonings. The
adventurous consumers. My main two right images are property of
sources of inspiration come from the Louise Fili Ltd.
plant itself; tea is a very dynamic
and complicated plant that has many
colors, hues, and tones. The other
material that I found to be useful,
when planning my design, was old
Victorian style labels, seals, and
typography, of Louise Fili which
combine delicacy with practicality.
mood board

collectorsweekly.com

randy-kates.blogspot.com sinflora.com neuarmy.com

As part of my research, I needed to understand what makes a con-
sumer want to buy this tea brand instead of a more common one
next to it on the shelf. The visuals of other brands are nature driven
and always exhibiting the freshness of the product. The impression
that I want a shopper to have when they see, hold, and read the
packaging is of a tea that is naturally wholesome, specially craft-
ed, and a new, convenient alternative to rival brands. I want to
depict the quality, taste, and stylish essence of the product through
plant-like colors and old-style presentation, as a reference to other
brands.

5
brainstorming
The narrowness of the tea brand
became very apparent as I sketched,
wrote, and thought about the design
of the solution I was creating. I
used a mind map to help plan what
direction I should plan to go to best
personify this brand. The diversity
of tea products is very limited and
the common things that come to
mind are not original or unlike the
present competition, however after
much brainstorming it occurred to
me that the brand didnt have to be
unlike, it only had to be accomplish-
ing my specifications for the target
audience. The design would contain
elements that are similar to other
brands, as most logos do, however
rather than create an entirely new
and unrelated identity, I chose
to capitalize on and exploit the
beneficial parts that are common of
the tea industry. The visuals would
drive the existing derived demand
as to only sway consumer behavior
to this product instead of another,
rather than create a new style, idea,
and understanding of the product. I
planned out what type I would want
to avoid, so as to not duplicate ex-
isting brands, and what elements of
the tea industry to avoid. The colors,
tone, and feel of the brand began to
develop as I narrowed my choices
and the modern style coupled with
old inspiration found its place in
the forefront of my planning.
tea mind map
I used a mind map to better direct
what elements of tea to stay avoid
and which to follow.

7
thumbnails
roughs

After developing my favorite thumbnails into rough sketches I was
able to eliminate the unusable options to better focus my efforts.
The tagline, Fine Imported Tea began to develop at this time;
though it is simple, I believe that it sets a level of quality and pres-
tige that the brand can easily assume. The idea of color began to
settle towards the green color palette, seeing as how it relates to
tea leaves, organic products, and nature, I thought it was a good
decision to direct my design to something that might reflect this.

9
comps
After developing and deciding
which roughs I wanted to try, I
made full comps of them. Through
Adobe Illustrator, I created these
three logos. The first, Jaymees,
combines a vintage style with a
modern simplicity. The use of tex-
ture and spacing allows the viewer
to develop their own interpretation
of the brand, making it less of a
distinct characterization and more of
a individual experience. This brand
would use the tag line, Green,
Black, Herbal as it relates to the
types of tea. The second option,
Hazels Whole Leaf Tea, combines
an old-style of presentation with the
banner and oval badge and the new
pastel hues of leaves. I was hoping
to make the best combination of
old and new with this logo while
still maintaining the established
qualities of tea manufacturers. This
logo would use the tag line, Whole
Leaf Tea which is a high quality
method of production for tea. The
third logo, Wholesome Tea, is
my personal favorite but perhaps
not my best option. The logo has
a generational elegance that looks
fine, expensive, and selective, all of
which are elements that a tea brand
hopes to achieve. However, because
I am marketing the new brand to a
younger audience, it may be a wise
decision to avoid the conventional
understanding of what a tea brand
looks like. The brand would use the
tag line, Organic, the word would
help convince the buyer of the good
and pure qualities already perceived
in the name.
11
solution
The development of my Comps
helped me choose the second option
as the best solution to the design
problem. I developed the logo
and added the elements that I saw
necessary to make the brand more
dynamic and interesting. It uses the
same badge style oval with a banner
and more clearly defined colors. The
color palette helps reflect the youth
and vitality of the brand, while still
appearing as a long established
brand and manufacturer. The brand
is completed as a different, modern,
and quality consumer good that is my solution I thought it was most
made to draw the eye of the target beneficial to create a logo that can
audience and secondary buyers. vary based on the season and type
The strategy of the design is not of tea. The brand can then become a
to create a new market but rather product that relates to the consumers
help segment a derived market lives, changing the color, flavor, and
that exists, especially among tea feeling, just as nature changes the
drinkers of all ages. The typeface environment around the buyer.
Duke Bevel creates the name with
Futura Std Heavy and Light for the
sub-header, Whole Leaf Tea, and
tag line, Fine Imported Tea. Many
brands of tea have variation of their
product due to seasons, so as part of
13
narrative
The design solution is the best
option to derive a demand for a new
specialty tea because it is different,
denotes quality, and exemplifies
the strong characterization of tea
brands. The choice of color, and
variations of it, help denote user
experience and personifies the
natural elegance of the tea. The
beveled typeface has the appearance
of a stamped, old lettering practice
on packaging, while the sanserif
tag lines help make the brand look
modern and current. The logo would
be stamped into the paper packaging such as tea, should look like, while
and give the appearance of slightly capitalizing on the modern attractive
beveled lettering and elements. The qualities of a youthful, natural, and
pastel colors would be raised and as- fresh brand.
sume the texture of a thick, speckled
paper that would be used in pack-
aging. The design communicates
quality with the use of old-style
imagery, however it also personifies
current design properties that are
fun, enticing, and interesting. The
brand is best communicated through
this logo because it stays withing
the conceived idea of what a brand,
15