THE HOT SPOT COFFEE SHOP
BRAND IDENTITY
Sector: Food & Drink Year: 2018
THE BRIEF
The Hot Spot Coffee Shop are a travelling coffee house which aim to provide their customers with two vital things; uplifting coffee and on-the-go WiFi. As self described early birds, they are usually on the move come sun rise to one of their many 'hot spots' to inject some warmth and energy into their customers mornings to kick start the day.
As a new brand coming into its first year of business, Hot Spot were in need of a brand package to get their service and product to market. The first part of their project resided within brand identity, requiring the development of a unique, trendy logo to appeal to a wide audience. The second half required packaging designs to spruce up the offering of purchasable goods from their vans.
With Hot Spot being a clever brand that offers something different from the norm both in terms of name and product, I wanted to explore a direction which represented the 'hipster' vibe of their business in a way that retained key visual information while breaking the bounds of the typical popular coffee market trends.
THE SOLUTION
Launching the Hot Spot design journey begun with identifying the brand keystones and figuring out how these could be interpreted creatively. I knew from the beginning that I wanted this design to be circular in shape to help reinforce the recurring 'spot' element of the brand. With much ideation following this, the direction settled on was to create a logomark which encompassed three of the business's keystones - Coffee, WiFi and the early mornings - all within a circular design.
As an effective way to keep the concept simple while still holding on to these elements, I came up with the idea of creating a WiFi signal/sunrise combination which sat above a coffee mug resembling heat coming from the coffee within.
Once the concept was approved and the design was gridded, the pictorial mark was finalised and we begun work on tying it in with typography to create the combination mark. The client requested that the design went down the route of a badge/stamp but were open to suggestion on how this came about. To achieve this, I opted for installing the naming around the circumference of the logo to help retain the circular form I introduced in the beginning. I also implemented simplistic coffee bean icons between the different poles of text to help further the badge appeal called for by the client. The type style was edited to have a bit more of an imperfect edge to it as well so that the lettering felt more fluid and characterful which was appreciated and on brand.
The colour palette was straight forward as the request for a rather dark chocolate and caramel brown was submitted by the client. The palette just became a matter of finding the right tones and shades to achieve the perfect contrast.
With the logo signed off and ready for implementation, it was time to move on to developing the design work for the packaging which would represent their core products. The client was completely open to suggestions on these matters, but knew they wanted to follow in the footsteps of the logo with simplicity in mind. I created a clean pattern to use a base on their cups to give these a hint of brand appeal and introduced the lined framing devices beside the logo to help tie things together on their sleeves without anything becoming overly complex. The triple line idea came directly from the native side panel styling on their retro trucks which soon became another core element to the Hot Spot brand we was building.
Iconography was also given consideration for the brand for use on their chalkboard menus and other materials. Each icon represented the types of beverage served - Espresso, Americano, Tea, Cappuccino, Hot Chocolate, Macchiato, Latte, Mocha and Frappé. Domed cups were also sampled for client review as an alternative packaging method for their summer/iced beverages.
The final major part of this project regarded the packaging designs for the coffee packets available for direct purchase. The three available each needed their own distinct style to match their flavours, but they also needed to share a similar design which would fit within the design rules now instilled throughout the brand. The palette already developed benefited this process massively as it allowed for a perfect difference between each product while make them feel very much part of the same identity.
As a whole, this was a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding project to be a part of and I wish every success to Hot Spot and their ventures ahead.
All work contained inside this case study is the property of The Hot Spot Coffee Shop, copyright 2019.
TESTIMONIAL
"I spent countless hours searching around for the right fit for our project before I came in contact with Jake. From our first discussions his passion and eye for design shone through which matched up with our passion for coffee and made us feel immediately comfortable. He was on board with our vision for our brand from the start and helped us to develop a set of designs which not only represented who we are as a business, but gave us an overall business image to shout about."
M. Davidson
OWNER, THE HOT SPOT COFFEE SHOP