This was a school project to create packaging for a ready-to-drink coffee beverage, develop a mobile pop-up experience for the public, and then a trade show booth to market to the RTD industry.
Victrola Coffee Roasters takes its name from the old Victrola record players and tries to evoke the Jazz Era of the Roaring ‘20s. People go to Victrola cafes for the energy of other people, the music, the spontaneity of the moment, and to have an enjoyable experience. I brought the color and liveliness of both old jazz posters and the environment into the packaging.
In order to generate brand awareness and increase the trial of the new RTD beverage, I designed a mobile pop-up that brings jazz records, an outdoor living room-type area, a photo op, and an outdoor cafe experience to any park or area where pedestrians frequent.
For the trade show booth, I wanted people in the industry to have that Seattle cafe experience that we're known for with a Victrola twist: like walking into a jazz poster. A place to sit, rest, get some espresso, and maybe listen to some light jazz records (if trade floor noise levels allow). There's also a photo op with a jazz band background (*note: created in Midjourney) and jazz instrument props. The giveaway promotional item, besides the product, was a jazz collection vinyl (see below).
Different views of the Victrola Trade Show Booth.
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Here are some select process captures to see how I achieved the final result for each phase.
The first phase was to create packaging for a fictional ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage from a company or local roaster that did not have one in the market yet.
I chose Victrola Coffee Roasters. I started out by researching the company. I looked at their current branding, audience, and key differentiators. I've been inside all of their locations, but I went to the Pike location and experienced the business from a marketing perspective.
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I created three mood boards: mild, medium, and spicy. After meeting with classmates and the instructor, the spicy mood board (pictured below) was the unanimous winner. For this mood board, I was inspired by the colorful, semi-abstract, and playful (almost cartoonish) jazz posters I came across. I've always loved jazz posters so the ideation phase was petty enjoyable for me.
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My first sketches explored relationships with the shapes of latte art, jazz instruments, and record players (Victrolas). These were all made in Procreate. I ended up combining ideas from several of these sketches.
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I produced the vanilla oat milk latte packaging first. Like the jazz posters on my mood board, I methodically jumbled the jazz instruments together to create a latte with foam art out of the negative space. The french horn subconsciously evokes the handle of the cup and the light blue piano shape with the red circle (a kick drum) subtly brings to mind a sun rising over the mountains: mornings are irrevocably tied to coffee in a lot of places.
I created the three icons to the left of the main graphic. I wanted them to pair with the color palette and each other. There were a few different types of vegan icons, but I ended up creating my own (heavily inspired by what was already available).
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This is the mocha version of the packaging. The background could be changed to other colors if other flavors were ever released.
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The second (and third) phase of the project was for my environmental design class. I decided on a mobile living room that would play jazz records while giving out the product to pedestrian-friendly areas (e.g. parks, outdoor malls, etc.). I created the scene in Adobe Dimension. I didn't create enough of a branded experience for my first draft. The background I generated in Midjourney was also too distracting.
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The third phase was to design a trade show booth to market to the RTD industry. I had more sketches, but this was the strongest (the others were also lost to the void lol).
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My first draft looked pretty close to my sketch. Like the pop-up, I also created this in Adobe Dimension. I wanted a kind of open layout cafe that gave the experience of walking into the design on the packaging. Talk about an immersive experience, amirite? lol ...ok... Similar to the mobile pop-up, I needed to create a photogenic branded experience. I also wanted to open up the floor a bit more and provide seating with more branding so if anyone sat next to one of the instruments, the brand has a better chance of being in the photo (instead of just posted in the back behind the espresso bar).
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