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Client: Gourmand Group
Services: rebranding, logo design, business card design, character design
Year: 2022
Gourmand Group is a full-service restaurant marketing agency based in San Francisco, California. Its founder, Angelina Hong, reached out to me to rebrand the business from "corporate and stale" to "friendly and cultural" for a refresh in the new year.
Gourmand Group services multicultural restaurants in the Bay Area, with a focus on Asian-American-owned businesses. Thus, it was important in this rebrand to incorporate a look and feel that captured the essence of these communities.
BEFORE
AFTER
A "gourmand" is a person who is a connoisseur of food.
LOGO
The first deliverable in this rebrand was a logo concept. Using the motif of a bowl of noodles and the brand name, the logo redesign presented more of a pan-Asian feel than the vagueness of the original logo. Other proposed logo designs included a friendly design with a red star at the top left corner, reminiscent of the California state flag, and a more structured emblem design whos subsequent brand elements would have been designed with a textured storybook feel.
BRAND ELEMENTS
Central to both these concepts was a bear mascot, as requested by the client. The following were options presented to them. Below that are the final character elements we workshopped, specifically illustrating "cute" motifs of Asian dishes including noodles, nigiri, sake, and steamed buns, for use across marketing materials.
My personal favorite!
This was the second option in what I described as a "storybook" illustration style.
The client selected this mascot and I moved forward with designing these "kawaii" style brand elements.
BUSINESS CARDS
The client's business cards ran with this brightly colored, friendly, "kawaii" (cute in Japanese) look and feel. The brand elements create the illusion of stickers over the printed material, giving the overall brand more of a sense of youthfulness.
BRAND GUIDELINES
To finalize the project and to assist Gourmand Group in maintaining their new, cohesive brand image, I developed a brand guidelines document for the agency. Standardized brand guidelines ensure internal operations can communicate the brand messaging consistently to the audience. By strictly adhering to brand guidelines, businesses can promote a uniquely recognizable brand identity to stand out from competitors and stay at top of mind for their consumers.
In these brand guidelines, I outlined Gourmand Group's history, mission, vision, and values, guidelines for logo, font, and color usage, and more.
Gourmand Group Brand Guidelines - Cover
Gourmand Group Brand Guidelines - Table of Contents
Gourmand Group Brand Guidelines - Back Cover
Gourmand Group Brand Guidelines - Cover
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FROM THE CLIENT
"I had such a pleasure working with Genesis. Anytime she sent over a draft I was IN LOVE! She truly understood my vision and was the perfect designer for my needs. My brand is playful, fun, bold, and bright and she nailed it. Really happy with her work and she stuck to all her timelines. Definitely recommend and if I need any work in the future I will be going back to her."
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