I’m an illustrator/ brand designer and my branding studio specializes in small business branding. So when I’m picking up my coffee, I often find myself sort of critiquing the spaces and branding around me. And don’t get me wrong, it’s usually not bad but, I also almost always see something I think could be improved with a little illustration design.
Almost every weekend I carve out some time to go sketching in one or two of my favorite coffee shops. This started a year or two ago with this cafe in my neighborhood called Coffee Daze because at the time it was the only place that I could walk to. Over time I’ve really grown to love this place. I meet people there all the time, they’ve got a wonderful community in their loyal customer base, I love my regular order of London Fog tea and the owner is an amazing person, who’s doing everything she can to make her business as great as possible. But I always felt like the atmosphere and the branding in the place was just kind of a blank slate.
There were lots of plants, some pictures on the wall and extra lamp lights and while it does add a lot to liven up the space, it’s just not enough to make it stand out. It was such a typical black slate coffee place that it took me until I really got pulled into the community to be totally at home there (and this is coming from someone who spends hours drawing there).
The good news is I’ve seen a little illustration design fix (or at least improve) this problem super fast! So I thought I’d give it a try!
I started with the interior, I figured some colorful murals might go a long way towards living up the space. I wanted to stick colors that would work with the orange/ pink/ yellow pastel colors I’ve seen them use on some of their merch as well as the stronger blues, greens and oranges that are currently present in the interior. And they’ve used the phrase ‘in a daze’ before so I tried to work that into the art with a lot of wavy shapes and a kinda daze like feel.
I think I’ve really brightened up the space but what do you think? Was I successful in making a stronger vibe for the interior?
If you want to see even more examples of what a mural can do for a cafe/ small business, here’s another fantastic article: https://kreafolk.com/blogs/inspirations/mural-art-coffee-shop
And if you want to learn more of how your space can utilize illustration design and the process of making it happen you can check out my small business branding page: https://www.kamillaillustration.com/small-business-branding
I like what I’ve done, but I think there’s more to do here. The current branding isn’t all that developed when it comes to things like logos or signage that could get a little more customer interaction, so join me next time to see what I can do with that!
And in the meantime, if you're wondering how something like this could work for your small business contact me to learn more!
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