unravel mobile brewtique: concept
Concept design, Branding, Print
May 2018
Re-imagining the classic brick and mortar boutique.
Imagine this: you're wearing a cozy knit as smells of coffee from the mug you're sipping wafts into the air. Typically, knits are known for their comfortable yet classy uses, while cafes are a go-to space for tranquility. What if we could combine the best of both comforts to get the ultimate cozy experience?
Introducing the first ever mobile brewtique. For this project, I created an original specialty store and developed its brand identity. This store is the first ever truck to sell both high quality-knitwear and serve coffee. Unravel is designed for people who don’t want to compromise their busy schedules to shop, but still get to experience. Find Unravel in the historic streets of Old Town Pasadena, the eclectic streets of Santa Monica, the hip streets of Melrose, and so much more on the road.
Thumbnail sketches of potential logos and additional identity applications
The process
As I developed Unravel’s brand, I focused on five key words to describe the specialty store’s overall direction. They included cozy, chic, simplistic, comfortable, and relaxing. I created mood/inspiration panels to visualise and capture the overall tone and intended audience of this hypothetical space.
For Unravel’s logo design, I began by sketching different logo freeform explorations. I roughly digitized five of the thumbnails and potential store names I narrowed down and explored different possible logotypes, which consisted of cursive, curvy, and stout typefaces. Each typeface embodied some part of Unravel’s five brand attributes. I also did rough sketches of the types of identity applications I could imagine developing to represent my overall store concept.
For the color palette, I chose analogous colors, consisting of pastels with a pop of dark pink and brown. The pastels give off the tranquil vibe Unravel needed, while dark pink is a color that conveys emotional balance and harmony. The brown goes with the classic color of coffee beans.
Clockwise from top left to right: digitized potential logos and store names, logotype explorations, visual mood/inspiration boards
The deliverable
Two versions of the final logo were created to work better on different applications: one with three pastel colors and one with a single brown color for a classic coffee product look. Typefaces Grand Hotel and Arial were ultimately chosen. Both versions contain the imagery of coffee beans acting as spools of yarn to combine the brand’s unique cafe and boutique aspect. Both also have an enveloping circle of the classic knit stitch pattern.
To keep it simplistic and modern, I decided on designing abstract shapes based off of visuals that represent knitting. The different circles used represent spools of yarn, while the different patterns represent different knit stitch patterns — chevron, garter, seed, rib, stockinette. I mocked up a variety of applications, ranging from stationery and promotional products using these designs. For the stationery system, what really ties this system together is that the visual design on the letterhead, business card, envelope, and menu can fit together like puzzle pieces.
For the promotional products, mockups of shopping bags were created. The clothes hang tag designed utilizes the different knit stitch patterns. I chose materials for the hang tag to be printed on. The top layer is printed on a clear vellum paper, the second is printed on a Neenah woodgrain paper that looks mimics knit stitches up close with its texture, and the bottom is a yellow cardstock that ties in with the color palette.
Mockup of stationary system and cafe menu designed
Mockup of clothes hang tag and its three layer components
