Branding project for design 2. Essentially wanted to design a small, independent grocery store that could stand in a city shopping street. Decided on an art theme because I wanted to work with a variety of colours compared to a restricted scheme.
Wanted logo to be simple and trendy, but still be an icon instead of words. A logo contained in a circle not only is easy to incorperate in other designs, but is an efficient shape for stickers, which are an important part of the grocery store experience.
While working on signage in InDesign and Illustrator, I came to accept that no matter how good a sign looked in my head, it would look strange when just presented as just the sign. In order for a lot of design choices to be effective, they need to be presented in context.
This led me to realize that designing the aesthetics of a store is still a form of design, just one that had not been brought up in my classes. Engineering experiences has always been more interesting to me than designing graphics.
This realization sort of reinvigorated my belief in the fact that I SHOULD be in the design program, and that what I'm being taught is only part of the world available to me out there. An important realization after more than half a semester of feeling like crap about not enjoying or being good at coming up with ideas for things like logos and stationary.
My initial digital drawings incorperating signs that I had partially already designed.
A mock-up of the dairy department of Romulus Market. With the focus being on organic, ethical products, I wanted to include some 'natural' elements, mainly wood. I imagine the wood for signs and accents is all harvested from a responsible wood-making startup somewhere nearby.
This also proved to myself that bright yellow with red text IS a colour scheme that works even in a clean environment.
Only locally-sourced fruits and veggies, so the selection changes over the seasons. Chalf boards with information above the products can be removed, cleaned, and re-written on instead of more wasteful paper signs every time stock changes. The actual produce section setup features easily moveable baskets as new produce comes in.
An important part of the market is its butcher counter, where most meat is processed in store every morning. No artificial lights are installed in the display. The colours of the meat as they are in the store are natural and will be exactly what they look like once a customer gets home.
They also have stickers at every check-out lane to say thank you for visiting our store!
