This week, my visual design graduate course started and our first learning module was on researching for brand and audience. A brand is a unique set of characteristics that differentiate a product, service, or company from its competitors. Having a strong brand identity is important because it helps establish trust, loyalty, and recognition among consumers. Audience research is a process of gathering and analyzing information about a specific group of people, typically consumers or users, to better understand their needs, preferences, behaviors, and attitudes towards a product or service. This crucial process includes various methods like surveys, interviews, data analysis, and more. The purpose of this research is to gain insights that can help inform marketing and communications strategies, product development, and customer experience initiatives. By understanding the target audience’s perspectives and motivations, businesses can tailor their messaging to better meet their needs and ultimately drive its success in the marketplace. As you can see, there is a lot that goes into creating a brand which were reflected in this week’s activities and projects.
Our activities this week included a combination of research and design for a local small business of our choosing. We were tasked with making a brand mood board, designing logos, and packaging our research into a brand plan. I chose Mew Haven, a cat cafe in New Haven, for my local small business. First, I looked into the business by visiting their website and social media channels to find images to include in my brand mood board. To start my research, I looked through their Instagram, where they actively engage with their followers, and their website. I found out they have no age limit because they feel it’s important for all ages to learn more about cats and even hold several recurring events for both kids and adults. Therefore, when it came to researching their audience, I had to keep in mind that it included everyone. Moving on, I decided to use a similar color palette of orange, and brown, for my logo designs. Through my research, I discovered that Mew Haven focuses on three things: cats (supporting and fostering rescues in their cafe until they find a permanent home), coffee (their cafe products), and community (creating a family friendly, relaxing and fun environment). They also emphasized sanctuary, or a safe place, for both their cats and consumers. With this in mind, I made the following logos:
For my logo designs, I kept their brand values of cats, coffee, community (and sanctuary) in mind. Each logo design incorporates a cat because hanging out with adoptable cats in their cafe is their biggest selling point and it’s what makes them unique since they were the first cat cafe in CT. Three designs include both a cat and cup — one that is similar to their current logo (all orange, cat with a cup, and vertical lettering) and the others that include both a cat and cup — while the fourth incorporates a cat and house to symbolize a cat sanctuary or safe haven. All in all, I tried to make my logo designs simple and made sure they would look good in both big and small sizes as well as in grayscale.