Client: 一点点 Boba tea company

Context: 一点点 is a popular Chinese boba tea company recognized for its convenience, modest prices, and exceptional customer control over their drink, including free additional add-ons.

For this project, I proposed to produce a logo design for 一点点 that better illustrates the company and its strengths. The initial logo of 一点点 has no association to Boba tea, representing only the company name. Furthermore, although the number “1” symbol is recognizable, the other figures are not, and they’re unattractive. As a result, this makes interpretation by new customers an issue, and I intend to solve this problem by making it more attractive, more recognizable, and more coherent, in addition to still keeping in touch with the original logo style.

    Original Logo Design

Feedback and Iterations

Before the designing process began, I asked Lucas to critique 5 of my initial ideas before the holiday would begin, I came to the conclusion of using logos 1 and 5. I chose 1 because the design, although obscure at far distances, was very different compared to the other designs. I also chose 5 because it fits well with my criteria: it’s coherent, attractive, and to some degree, recognizable.

Logos 2, 3 and 4 were not selected because they didn’t comply with my criteria. Logos 2 and 4 although recognizable, weren’t coherent, and 3, although attractive, was not recognizable. Although the original logo had the older, traditional version of writing the 一点点 figures, I will not continue it, because this version of Chinese is no longer widely prevalent, and would not appeal to most customers. I substituted it with the modern counterpart as you can see displayed below.

Logo thumbnail sketches (30 Ideas)’

First 5 designs (Before holiday)

Last 20 designs (During holiday)

Ideation Matrix

 

 

The individual logo illustrates a Slab-serif figure “1”, and the remaining figures are Sans-serif. Although the initial logo only uses letterforms, I think objects will greatly enhance the coherence and attractiveness.  Because the main colours used in the original logo are shades of green, wellbeing and sophistication are a reasonable choice. I selected primary and natural colours because those were the ones presented in the initial logo, and I plan to continue its trend.

First Logo Design

The first logo design was based upon a hand sign for “a little bit”, which is recognized across the world, no matter what culture or language. However, there is no association with bubble tea, but I ignored this for the time being because my later logo designs would address this.

I produced the first design following the thumbnail sketches. Although not recognizable from long distances, it was simple and coherent. However, Lucas suggested including what I had marked for keywords in my ideation matrix: wellness and sophistication. In addition, he suggested that I also add the brand name.

 

Following the feedback, I added two black and green slashes above the hand. Now the logo was more recognizable, although, this wasn’t attractive, so I included greater sophistication into my logo design.

This final design seemed to downgrade from my initial design. The colours, although a triad, was not effective. I decided to revert back to my original design because this was far too sophisticated. I also changed the 1 to “一” because the presentation is more direct, which is debatable whether it’s better or worse.

Mockups, Logo design 1

Second Logo Design

The second logo design incorporates a boba tea drink and the company brand. I included the hand so that from a visual perspective, the audience would naturally be drawn towards the drink. The circle functions in much the same way, focusing the attention of the customer upon the drink before the company brand. Initially, I decided that this logo design will not include any iterations, because it seemed that most of my required criteria have been satisfied. However, that opinion would later change.

The final product didn’t feel completely satisfactory, the hand and drink bottle didn’t appear organic. . However, the design was coherent, recognizable, and attractive to some extent. Although I wanted to make iterations, I didn’t want a repeat of the last attempt, so I didn’t. Overall, this logo was mostly a success, and I’m happy with its results.

Mockups, Logo design 2

Third Logo Design

Throughout the design process, I selected a number of criteria that I hoped to achieve in the final design, and narrowed it down to a few points: The design should appear organic, attractive, and coherent. The illustration should be recognizable and comprehensible regardless of the customer’s language or culture. Finally, the logo should be simple and reflect the strengths of the company. I already had a design in mind which would be the final: number 10. Although this design is extremely sophisticated, it follows the criteria listed above. I originally chose number 9, but this design seemed much more fitting.

 

 

 

 

The song lyrics I decided to illustrate were from “Say Can You Hear?” by Oncle Jazz.

I chose to display a marionette doll splayed across an empty stage on two ropes because the song is about grief and scapegoating, and having hope in difficult situations. The typography poster had gained inspiration from the “Peace on earth” poster, “Paper cutout affect” poster and the “Who needs the economy” poster. Ropes would have been intertwined between the words, similar to how laves are incorporated into the design of the font in “Peace on earth”. The “Paper cutout effect” poster had white text contrast against an intense and vivid backdrop, drawing more attention towards it. This affected the fact that my text is white against black, although the empty stage is not as radiant as the other poster. The text on my poster is not yet completed, although the intended purpose was for some text to be toppling downwards, similar to how it is displayed in the “Who needs the economy” poster.

The initial sketch had intended the marionette puppet to be hazy on the edges, and dripping black ink. After some feedback from Lucas, I opted for more solid and rigid details, and (although not yet incorporated) delicate lines.

I associated scapegoating with marionette puppets (cannot retaliate, powerless), and thus chose to illustrate one. The blank empty stage is to represents nobody to turn towards, which in the song, seemed to demonstrate that.

Using Design Terminology:

I decided to use serif because it felt confined and restricted, like how the song tells the listener. I used even distancing between the letters and the borders of the poster (X and Y cap heights and length). I also decided to wrap the text around the puppet because then the effect looks less organized, and deliberately made it more out of place. I decided to make the background black so the overall hierarchy would be more obvious, and so the first thing the audience notices is the central piece.