SUMMARY
This was a semester long project completed in 4th year in the Graphic Design for Marketing program at the Wilson School of Design at KPU. This project allowed us to learn about designing in a corporate setting and was our first introduction to graphic standards manuals. I chose Blenz Coffee because despite having products that creates a strong competition in the market, there is a lack of structure and consistency with their brand guidelines.
Blenz Coffee is a staple of many Canadian's lives, and strives to be a café where people can relax and socialize.
They proudly offer products that are made from premium, high grade ingredients.
They proudly offer products that are made from premium, high grade ingredients.
PROBLEM DEFINITION AND NEED
Blenz Coffee is a well-known Canadian coffee company that has developed and expanded globally. While the company does well in creating customer satisfaction with their products, Blenz Coffee's current identity is not only lacking design elements to entice consumers, but it also creates a disconnect in how they want to represent themselves to how they are currently seen. There is also no brand consistency across the franchises because of the lack of communication and standards, which creates a problem for customers in terms of brand recognition. Many franchises are unsure of which logo to use, as Blenz Coffee has many different versions that are currently in use, including their older brand identity.
In addition, the lack of design elements on their packaging does not entice their customers to share their experience on social media, although sharing the experience is one of Blenz's original goal. Ensuring that the packaging design holds true to Blenz's branding while also containing enticing design elements is imperative.
STRATEGY
In order to appeal to Blenz's main target audience, Blenz needed a brand identity and overall system that reflects the quality of service and products that Blenz has to offer. This will allow Blenz to elevate their brand to match the same level of design and appeal as their competitors. Because this brand is a Canadian favourite, considering the existing clientele and ensuring that the rebrand is approached in a methodical way is important.
RESEARCH
Research into who Blenz is as a company, and how their customers currently viewed them was helpful in creating the base. This furthered the process by defining the important aspects of Blenz and also helped point out what needed to be improved. As more independent coffee shops open in Vancouver, Blenz's competitors continue to grow. Researching into the other coffee shops in Vancouver was important because the research established a starting point in terms of visual language and messaging.
PROCESS
Before arriving at the final solution, my process started off with looking at current competitor's branding and messaging. This helped with narrowing down the options because it allowed me to see what was popular in the industry at the moment. After that, I created three different moodboards, which included elements such as art styles, colour palettes, and typography options. From there, I went to my sketchbook and drew out as many designs as possible, with the three moodboards in mind. I moved to the digital artboard soon after finding three sketches that were different concepts and digitalized them. From there, I shared my three concepts with my instructors and peers. This gave me external opinions of what would represent Blenz the best. After that, I reiterated the logo further, then went on to develop the rest of the deliverables.
The graphic standards manual followed a similar process to the logo, but the sketching stage did not take as long. Most of the progress done for the graphic standards manual was done digitally. The packaging was also loosely sketched out, then developed, and reiterated digitally. The social media campaign was done after doing research into Blenz's current campaign, and other breast cancer awareness campaigns. From there, the posts and messaging were reiterated before producing the final product digitally.
THE DESIGN SOLUTION
When first looking at Blenz’s current situation, the word “coffee” was redundant and many already refer to “Blenz Coffee” as just “Blenz”. The decision to shorten the name to “Blenz” comes from the fact that Blenz offers more than just coffee, and allowed the name to be shorter and more memorable. This also allows Blenz to be looked at as more of a community than just another coffee shop.
Coffee bag & cup
Promotional campaign cup
Takeout bag
Gift card
Takeout box
The final brand identity helps better communicate what Blenz is all about. Their products are simple, but derive from high quality ingredients, making it one of the top Canadian coffee shops in Canada so creating an identity that better represented that allows Blenz to elevate their brand in the coffee/cafe industry. This new identity also gives Blenz a cleaner, more modern look that will also translate well into other marketing materials and packaging.
The packaging now better reflects the quality that customers are getting when they purchase from Blenz. The look is cleaner and sharper, and invites customers to post and share their purchase online. It holds more design elements that better represents the quality and price of the product. The packaging also follows the most updated brand guidelines created during this rebrand.
The graphic standards manual gives little room for interpretation when it comes to using Blenz’s branding elements. It addresses specific content such as typography, colour palette, icon usage, and photography style among other important aspects. This will allow for better consistency across all medias and franchises.
The social media campaign gives the reader a more human experience than their previous posts did. This campaign pulls away from the corporate look and messaging that often use when trying to promote a campaign. This new campaign focuses more on the people that have been affected by breast cancer, rather than focusing on the cups throughout the campaign. By attaching the foundation with real people and their personal stories, this will allow the reader to connect with the post. This also gives them more variety in their posting, as most of their current posts are images of their cups.
CHALLENGES
Because Blenz is such a popular company that holds a history in Canadian’s hearts, drastically changing the brand could risk upsetting the existing customer base. To avoid this, each decision needed to be justified, and had to still hold true to Blenz’s personality. This was also a company that had multiple brand identities that were being used in store. Narrowing down what aspects to keep, and what needed to be improved was quite the challenge.
The social media campaign created was also quite challenging, as the topic of breast cancer can be quite sensitive to some. Ensuring that there wasn’t any imagery or wording that could possibly be offensive or give off the wrong idea was important.
