Local Korean restaurant

Moon Cafe.

Moon Cafe.

Rebranding to fit their fresh and unique image.

Project: Brand identity package + app design

Role: Sole product designer

Industry: Restaurant

Tools: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, FigJam

Timeline: 2021

Overview

Project: Brand identity package + app design

Role: Sole product + brand designer

Industry: Restaurant

Tools: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, FigJam

Timeline: September 2021 - December 2021

Logo

Introduction

What is Moon Cafe?

Moon Cafe is a family-run Korean restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan serving Korean food alongside frozen yogurt. With their casual diner atmosphere, piping hot broths, noodle soup and bibimbap, and endless frozen yogurt toppings, Moon Cafe is a fresh restaurant fulfilling a unique need: quickly-served Korean food with frozen yogurt for dessert - your perfect comfort food combo.

Our MClubs design was an effort to create a more engaging experience for students that would make getting involved on campus fun. Our designs were intended to be visually appealing yet pragmatic, with the goal of creating a highly personalized platform that specifically emphasizes the importance of community and increases campus involvement for higher-education institutions post-pandemic.

Moon Cafe's original branding lacked focus, providing limited context to the restaurant's mission and the food it served. In working with Moon Cafe, I rebranded their logo, packaging, merchandise, and mobile application in the hopes of more accurately representing their name, their cuisine, and their identity.

Logo

Packaging

The mark

The Moon Cafe logo is a combination mark containing a logo mark and logotype. The logo mark is composed of a moon in the shape of a bowl to reflect the title of their restaurant, circles inside the bowl that can represent both their signature noodle soup dishes and frozen yogurt, and flat-style chopsticks to emphasize Korean cuisine.

For the logotype, P22 Underground Book was selected for the title as the geometric sans serif typeface complimented the circular shape repeated throughout the logo mark.

Merchandise

Packaging

Consistency

The packaging was designed to be functional and brand-aligned, containing the logo mark, logotype, and signature pattern to promote brand recognizability while maintaining brand values and identity.

Merchandise

Color

The brand color scheme was chosen strategically to highlight the elements at the foundation of Moon Cafe's identity:  yellow emphasizes the imagery of the moon, blue-purple represents the night sky, and red can symbolize energy in Korean culture. Red and blue make up the colors of the taegeuk symbol from the Korean flag, representing harmony of the universe and the interaction of yin and yang. As the three primary colors, red, blue, and yellow also send a message that is lively, fresh, and inviting.

App

Pattern

Pattern is another foundational element in this brand redesign. Being used in a number of different collaterals, patterns give Moon Cafe a clear and recognizable visual language. The patterns are bright and playful, echoing Moon Cafe's fun and unique character.

Reflection

Variation

Slight variation in the logo and the way it is used brings life to the merchandise, allowing the core of the brands identity to remain consistent and memorable while keeping the designs new and exciting.

Communication

I used many patterns and variations throughout designing the business stationary to continue the themes of clean geometric shapes and welcoming energy.

App

Simplicity

I designed a straightforward mobile application that would allow customers to view Moon Cafe's menu and preview photos of the food. The restaurant is fast-casual and gets a majority of customers from foot-traffic, so their application was intentionally minimalist in design to focus solely on core functionality.

Reflection

What I learned

Cultural nuance

In working with a culture that is not my own, I learned that I can easily attribute my own stereotypes into branding, highlighting the importance of doing your research and consulting individuals from that culture directly. If I could re-do this project, there are things I would change to ensure the branding is more firmly rooted in Korean culture.

In working on a team of other designers, developers, and product managers, I learned the importance of designing with other team members in mind. Creating and communicating designs in a way that developers can reasonably implement is important for meeting the expectations set by product managers.

In working on a team of other designers, developers, and product managers, I learned the importance of designing with other team members in mind. Creating and communicating designs in a way that developers can reasonably implement is important for meeting the expectations set by product managers.

Logotype: I would change the typeface of the tagline to UhBee MiMi, a Hangul font designed by UhBee, a Korean font-creator, to ensure cultural accuracy and respect

Logotype: I would change the typeface of the tagline to UhBee MiMi, a Hangul font designed by UhBee, a Korean font-creator, to ensure cultural accuracy and respect

Logo mark: I would design the chopsticks to have a flatter tip like authentic Korean chopsticks to avoid a lack of cultural specificity

Logo mark: I would design the chopsticks to have a flatter tip like authentic Korean chopsticks to avoid a lack of cultural specificity

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Introduction

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Made with Diet Coke © 2024 Mary Wurster

Korean restaurant

Moon Cafe.

Rebranding to fit fresh image.