Cafe Latte Rebrand
Our final project in GDES 3352 Identity and Symbols was to rebrand a real restaraunt in the Minneapolis area. I chose Cafe Latte.
Cafe Latte is a bakery, cafeteria, and pizza/wine shop combined into one(ish) location. They have a cafeteria style service, with a two floor layout on the central street of Grand Avenue. The restaurant emphasizes fresh, made-from-scratch meals using high-quality ingredients, with a menu that highlights soups, salads, sandwiches, pizza, and an extensive selection of house-made desserts. The family owned business is a unique blend of an authentic, somewhat-expensive cuisine (at least for a broke college student) and the happy charm of a childhood cafeteria.
To simulate working for a true client, we were tasked to produce a progress deck that could be used to inform and communicate design decisions to the brand. To see the entire PDF, click here.
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The final logo design of Cafe Latte was first conceptualized by going through the actions of getting a Cafe Latte drink. The C as the mug, the stars representing the cream/sugar added on top, the swirling L forming in the foam as the drink is being stirred. The colors reflect the elegance of Cafe Latte's food through the rich purple and tan, with pops of brighter red and pink to show a playfulness that keeps the brand from feeling too exclusive. The textured images that can be seen in the background are real pictures taken at Cafe Latte, notably an image of their cake is heavily featured, as the restaurant is most famous for having amazing cakes. One problem I had not considered at the beginning of this project was that the unique nature of Cafe Latte's cuisine, combined with their vague name, makes it hard to communicate what the business actually sells through just their logo. For this reason, I incorporated stylized illustrations of many of their most popular items that are featured on most of their brand collaterals and assets. Decorated in playful, yet intentional patterns, these illustrations tell the complete story of what Cafe Latte is meant to be–a jack of all trades and master of all.
