Context: Final project for HCDE 308 (Visual Communication in Human Centered Design and Engineering)
Duration: 3 weeks (Winter 2019)
Collaboration: Individual work (except for team research phase)
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe XD
As part of this project, I played the role of a design consultant for my client, FareStart. FareStart is a nonprofit organization that focuses on providing real solutions to poverty and homelessness through food and food service. My "job" was to create a cohesive visual system that represented the client's ethos and mission.
After practicing design principles, typographic hierarchy, color, and integration of visual elements, I used a 5-phase design process to create a new visual system for FareStart that communicated their values of inclusiveness and excellence. This project's design process included researching their mission, redesigning their logo, creating icons and mobile interfaces, and combining those elements into a cohesive brand book.
Research was the foundation of my rebranding project. For this phase I worked in a team of four and conducted background research to understand FareStart's mission and how that mission is currently and visually represented in their brand identity.
First, we researched FareStart's audiences and relationships. This helped us gain an understanding of who our visuals would reach and impact. Then, we analyzed their brand identity. This entailed examining their mission statement and the engagement they promoted followed by analysis of how it was successfully or unsuccessfully portrayed in their brand identity.
We analyzed their social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) to find content that was inconsistent with their mission and to locate confusing and unsuccessful design elements. This thorough design research helped me redesign FareStart's visual brand identity so that it more successfully portrayed their mission and reached their target audiences with a consistent and cohesive message.
I appreciated FareStart's use of the color orange as their main color, but it wasn't the right shade of orange to convey their mission of compassion towards their workers and the community. I thought it was too bright and cool toned.
I chose a complementary color scheme of oranges and blues in order to convey a sense of elegance and to reflect FareStart's mission of making a lasting impact. The warmth of the oranges represents comfort, while the brightness creates a sense of excitement for new beginnings. In contrast, the blues embodies a sense of stability and longevity.
The original logo is very simple, but it exuded a soup kitchen vibe, which did not reflect their goal of presenting themselves as a high-end, fine dining restaurant.
I started the redesign of the logo by brainstorming FareStart's mission and goals that I reflected in the new logo. Instead of focusing on the food and culinary aspects of FareStart, I honed in on their unique mission of helping individuals grow by teaching them new life and work skills through their restaurants and culinary apprenticeships.
The spoon represents FareStart's core mission of teaching individuals work and life skills through their culinary programs and apprenticeships. I conveyed personal growth with leaves blooming from the spoon. I designed the spoon with a darker orange and the leaves with a lighter orange to represent that from warmth and comfort, fresh starts can grow.
First, I brainstormed important features on FareStart's website that are the most used by their audience. I concluded that the two most important features were filling out their catering form and reviewing their menus.
New menu icon
New catering icon
The menu icon directs the user to the list of FareStart's various menus, and the catering icon leads the user to its catering form. Since FareStart considers itself an upscale restaurant, I chose to create clean and simple icons. The icons are the same color scheme as my logo to create cohesion across the visuals. I also matched the rounded corners and boldness of the logo's spoon with the icons to convey a sense of friendliness.
I started this phase of the project by viewing FareStart's current website and identified users' pain points. I found one major pain point on their catering form page. They have a single catering form but multiple catering menus, one of which is specific to weddings.
I saw this as a pain point because unlike other esteemed restaurants, FareStart's website was not intuitive for users to make a wedding catering appointment. Specifically, it lacked a way to choose menu selections and easily request a taste testing appointment, which is a common practice.
After choosing to focus on a wedding catering form, I created three wireframes to show the micro interaction of selecting an item, then requesting a tasting during the wedding catering meeting.
The brand book was the last phase of my project. It represents the culmination of my design work for rebranding FareStart's visual presence. It shares FareStart's story through their color scheme, logo, icons, photos, and app screens, all of which reflect their mission.
This was my first official design class. We had an ideation exercise where we had to design logos for a product that combined dolphins and bobby pins. At first, I struggled to come up with more than 5 ideas, but the more I let my ideas run wild, ideating became easier. I used this new mindset when designing my entire brand book. It helped me break free from common designs and create unique designs.
When making this brand book I learned that it's crucial to define design communication goals early. This allowed me to stay focused on my end goal for the design. When I felt stuck on ideas, I returned to my design communication goals to get myself back on track.