Cream Cafe


ABOUT

For this project, I designed a brand identity for Cream Cafe, an elegant, fun, and welcoming dessert cafe. I created a logo and packaging design that captures the cafe's unique ambiance and charm.

ROLE

Graphic Designer

SKILLS

Prototyping

Brand Identity

Logo Design

Packaging Design

TOOLS

Procreate

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop


  1. BRAND DESIGN PROCESS

Brainstorming

I began by brainstorming in my sketchbook.

I wanted to create a logo for a dessert cafe. These types of cafes serve elaborate and delicious pastries and cakes in addition to coffee and tea. This concept was inspired by real life dessert cafes in NYC including Prince Tea House and Grace Street.

I thought about the target audience. I knew I didn’t want to make it too serious, too expensive or exquisite, or too childish.

One of the most difficult parts of creating an imaginary brand is trying to figure out a good name. I listed out the different possibilities and spent time researching one that is short and catchy. I also wanted a name that was easy to integrate into a design. After getting some feedback from my peers, I was able to narrow it down to 2 options: either "Cloud Cafe" or "Creme/Cream Cafe.” In the end, I decided on ”cream” since it seemed more appetizing, and more perfectly fits the dessert aspect of the cafe.

Sketching

Next, once I had a name and concept, I sketched ideas regarding the design itself. Here are the main considerations:

  • All lowercase letters for the name because it is more welcoming and lighthearted compared to all caps

  • Having graphics accompany text because having a text-only logo isn’t enough to capture brand purpose

Adobe Illustrator Design Iterations

I played around with many iterations, and settled on the coffee cup and slice of cake graphic for my brand. I started off with black and white because I didn’t want my logo to rely too much on color. It needs to be reproducible and versatile, after all.

I experimented with different color schemes too. While I did like the tan and brown one, I felt like it was too overdone; I wanted to make something more unique. Having pink and blue as my color scheme instead of brown and tan (which is expected) highlights the fact that this cafe is supposed to have more of a cuter, aesthetically pleasing aspect than the usual cafe.

I also started off without strokes on the graphics, but decided to add them to see what it looked like - I ended up really liking the design with the strokes/outlines. The outlines make the components stand out more from afar. I also simplified some aspects of the design, like the dripping cream on the cake, and that made the design much more smoother and gentler. I also played around with stroke weight, and ended up picking 4pt as my stroke width because it's not too thin yet not too thick.

For the fonts, I had trouble picking ones to use because I liked them all. The “CAFE” font was easier for me to decide though: I didn’t want to make it bold to take away from the actual name of the cafe, so I picked a lightweight font for it. To make it stand out more, I kept it as all caps but a smaller size than "cream."

I chose the pink/blue color scheme because I think it looks visually pleasing on the eyes and also conveys the brand of the cafe better - these colors are harmonious and calm and are perfect for the calm, aesthetically pleasing dessert cafe that I have in mind. Again, I recreated it in black and white to make sure that my logo was versatile.

These 4 are iterations of my final logo. I had the idea to add a cherry and more cream/frosting to the cake to make it more appetizing. However, I was concerned that this would be too detailed. I didn’t want to overcomplicate my logo since it already seems very busy - but I really liked the look of it, since it adds more dimension to the design.

I opted to just include the cherry and cream in the middle. I also used a cursive font for “cream” because I feel like this font captures the feeling of a creamy and delicious texture better.

The bottom two are the black and white versions of my logo. I also liked these, but I thought that color added a bit of uniqueness. But I think they would probably be great for the packaging design for something like cupholders or napkins.

Final Logo

Final Description

This logo is for a dessert cafe called Cream Cafe, which sells many delicious desserts like cake, macarons, and waffles, and coffee and tea drinks including lattes and milk teas. The font for “cream” is cursive because of its fluidity and daintiness that resembles whipped cream. The "cafe" is in uppercase letters because it tells us what this logo is for explicitly, and it is in a lightweight font to not distract from the “cream” title. The graphic depicts a coffee or tea cup and a slice of the cake.

The cup is very rounded to convey a more softer and cuter feeling. The cake slice also lacks sharp corners (it has subtle rounded corners) to be consistent with the brand. There is also some cream and a cherry on top which is referencing the “cream” part of the name. This graphic was made to be as simple as possible but also convey what is being served at the cafe. To wrap it all up, and to integrate the text and graphic more, I added a circle to enclose everything. This also makes it easier for it to be reproduced, and for the logo to be contained more. For the colors, I chose a darker, electric navy blue as the outline and font color to make these aspects of the logo to stand out. it’s not black, so the overall logo is lighter (not intimidating). I chose a pastel light pink as the background to convey a feeling of sweetness and cuteness more. I incorporated white into the graphics to make them stand out even further, providing a nice contrast and making the logo more dynamic.


2. PHYSICAL APPLICATION PROCESS

Before making any changes to the mockup, I planned out what I was going to do by sketching. I drew out the 2D laid out version of the box to more clearly understand where I needed to place my logo and add any additional designs. I figured out that I wanted the logo to be on top of the box since that is the most conspicuous location.

Now that I know where to place the logo, and where the window is, I needed to figure out a design for the sides of the box. I sketched out different designs, and even thought about just leaving the sides blank to convey a more minimalistic feeling. But in the end, I decided to go with a very simple curved wave design. The curved waves come from the logo - the curved waves on the cake slice. This design conveys a sense of consistency since it references the logo.

The final curved design I went with matches the curved design of the icing on the cake slice of my logo. I went into illustrator to create the design. After exporting my illustrator file, I applied the design along with my logo onto the mockup template.

After smoothing out some of the corners, and placing the logos in the correct locations, I turned my attention towards changing the colors. I made the background pink to make the mockup pop out more. I made the cupcakes a lighter color so that they didn't draw attention away from the boxes.

FINAL MOCKUP

The cupcake box continues to convey the visual identity of Cream Cafe. I used the same color scheme as the logos to make the entire design look more harmonious. I decided to have a curved icing design so that it can be consistent with the logo. From afar, the box resembles a cartoon cake with icing on top, just like the cake slice illustration on the logo. Overall, I kept the design very simple and cute so it can be easily identifiable.