A large section of the project was dedicated to finding a suitable and strong logo design that would encourage the brand identity of Grand Cafe. I started out trying to make the logo digitally, exploring various type faces and colour schemes with other elements added in to see if there was anything I could come up with that would present the powerful brand identity that I was trying to create. To me, the current logo lacked elegance and originality. I liked some elements of it such as the seed that's beginning to grow, but as a whole the logo didn't feel like it represented the standard of the brand as well is it could - and to me this was one of the first things I wanted to attempt to rectify.
I started by using the Adobe software, Illustrator and experimenting with different fonts, some of which were already on the software, but I found that there wasn't any in particular that were doing what I wanted them to, so I went online to try and find some fonts that would do a better job of creating the type of identity for the brand that isn't there at the moment. Currently, the type face within the pre-existing logo feels off, and I feel like if they wanted to have the product on display and on counter tops, it needs to be more recognisable and more visually appealing than it is currently. I came across various fonts online that I thought could potentially do the job, these included; 'Bebas Neue', 'Ave Fedan', 'Harabara Mais Bold' and 'Javanese Text'. All of these fonts were very different from one another, as I wanted to really explore to potentials of different type faces. Some were more playful and less formal such as 'Ave Fedan', however fonts such as 'Javanese Text' were more formal. All of the different type faces had distinct qualities that I think would do very well on packaging and with a branding campaign in general, and that's why I chose to look into them further. This was the first real branding project I had ever done, and the reason I chose to undertake it is because I wanted to understand better the thoughts and design process that is funnelled into projects like it. Graphic design as a whole is something I've always liked but never really had the opportunity to do it, so I took the chance during the responsive module after some thought to do a branding brief like this and although it's challenging and new to me in a lot of ways, I'm enjoying it so far and learning a lot. Looking this closely at different fonts and finding specific fonts that fit certain roles whilst communicating certain ideas and connotations through their aesthetic qualities has in turn made me appreciate the thought process behind logo design and typography in practice. Below is some of the experimentation I did digitally, utilising different fonts, approaches and modifications that could be added such as outlines and shadows, in combination with colour. Choosing colours to fit a purpose is a challenging but enjoyable part of the process. Here I was able to find colours that I liked and using their connotations and the associations that are made to different colours, pick specific greens, browns and reds to fit the purpose and message of the brand. I picked greens to signify the important of sustainability and the environmental consideration the company has in the coffee's production process. As well as this, the slightly pastel coloured reds make me think of elegance - it's also a contrasting colour to green, which in turn creates an emphasising and contrasting effect between the two colours when they're placed next to each other. Another colour I was fond of using during my experimentation was different shades of brown. Brown has an inherently comforting feel, especially when associated with coffee and it has a connotation of richness often seen in adverts for chocolate, coffee and other luxury items.
Ultimately, I decided to go with the font below in order to complete the logo. I much preferred the rough imperfect approach to the typeface and thus the logo as it presented what I felt like a much more personal brand rather than a corporate look that was pretty much the opposite of what I wanted. Like I said before I did take some elements of the original logo, or at least the idea of having leaves and or root in the background of the font meant that it was still representative of the environmental and sustainable implications of the brand. I placed the 'Grand Cafe' type onto a green background and played around with colours until I found one I liked which turned out to be white text on the green background with another shade of green on the leaves, easily visible due to the contrast between the two colours. Before this I had spent some time experimenting with different colours for the text on Photoshop by overlaying different colours and playing this layer settings. By using this method I was able to turn out a lot of different variations of the colouring on the text but none of it sold me, and overall the white was the strongest of all the variations in my opinion. Overall I'm quite happy with the changes I made to the logo. I think now I have a logo to work with which is quite different to their original but still holds the same values and communicates a very similar message - it means I can go and apply it to different products and promotional material.
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