THE ASSIGNMENT
Four life-long friends are retiring, and want to invest their savings in a café. All four of them are big Funk fans, and their favorite artist is James Brown. They have tasked me with creating a brand and visual identity for their new business, complete with a custom font, branded items, and promotional materials.
THE CHALLENGE
I had to create the whole brand - from the café’s name, logo, and tone of voice - all the way to the menu items - with no further guidance or input. I had to accurately recreate the spirit of a past time and a culture, while keeping the visuals fresh.
DESIGN SOLUTION
This project had to be heavy on research. I made lists of historical figures, colloquialisms, and events. I looked at album covers and music charts from the period. Each one of my creative decisions was backed by research-based context.
PHASE ONE
Logo design and brand guides.
RESEARCH
I needed to familiarize myself with the Funk aesthetic. From the start of this project, I had imagined a man sporting a 70’s Afro cut, however, I didn’t know if that was accurate of the period, or just my personal impression. Other than that, I also needed a color palette and typographic direction.
My research yielded good results. The Afro was a spot-on association. I discovered fluid, almost psychedelic hand lettering , and dominating warm colors with earthy accents.
I decided that the cafe will be named after James Brown’s The Funky Drummer, which happens to be the world’s most sampled song.
LOGO DESIGN
The first ideas I had about the logo involved a coffee cup, with the steam spelling out The Funky Drummer. I wanted to convey Funk’s musical spirit through typography, but I also wanted to have a human element in the mark. This made me think about anthropomorphizing the cup. But that would have been too much. I finally settled on a mascot+logotype icon combination that is charming and in tune with the tunes.
TYPE DEVELOPMENT
Knowing myself, I was afraid that I would go overboard with stylizing and make a display font that is more display than font. This is why I decided to take a classical and established font and rework it, so that it would control me where I wouldn’t. I chose everyone’s favorite Bodoni, and gave it a funky twist. I named it Bodoney as a form of homage to my inspiration.
Bodoney is my attempt at visualizing Funk music’s qualities. It is thick, smooth, base-heavy, with a lot of movement, but at the same time it has a solid backbone. My main goal here was to achieve a sense of movement.
Type Display poster featuring one of James Brown’s most significant songs.
PHASE THREE
Asset development.
COFFEE BAG
I designed these coffee bags as part of The Funky Drummer’s asset package. I wanted to decorate the bags with abstract shapes that capture the beat of Funk. Bodoney was a perfect fit, especially after you notice how the bowls carry a slight coffee been resemblance.
COFFEE CUP AND SLEEVE
I realized that most of the assets I created weren’t utilizing The Funky Drummer’s brand colors. I saw the coffee cup as an opportunity to change that. Here you can see the swirly psychedelic design motif that was so popular with Funk album covers.
MENUS
Since most visitors would read it, I chose to imbue the menu with The Funky Drummer’s voice. Short and catchy phrases describe the menu items. I wanted to create a character with a voice that the customers would enjoy listening to when they read the menus in their heads.
