Brandon UI / UX .

Data Visualisation Ideation

This is not my strong suit and I found this especially challenging. Firstly, deciding what the data even means and then figuring out how I want the convey to something and what that something is took a while. Furthermore, selecting a method to display it in a visually appealing and effective way was even more difficult. Ultimately I believe the entire idea only strengthened my idea and to be honest, due the complexity and variation of the answers I think I did fairly well and improved as a designer. 

Cutlery Holder + Table Numbers

Working out how seating and in respect how the number system would work was quite challenging. As I myself have quite a bit of hospitality experience I café to function well for the staff which in turn would only improve the customer’s experience. 

Eventually I decided that: each table would have cutlery holder(s) that held cutlery, napkins, and menus which would be next to the actual container. It was contained the table number of which is split into three different designs to indicate the three different sections that the café is split into. 

Takeaway Coffee Cup + Sleeve

The hardest thing about this product was measuring and creating a template for the sleeve as the Starbucks sleeve did not fit the takeaway cups I had bought for this project. I also had bought a 25 pack of two cup sizes and two lid sizes so I was going to commit no matter how difficult it proved. 

Menu

Of all the products I made I spent the longest time deliberating on the menu, as I wanted it to be an engaging and unique experience. Originally, I wanted to hang menu cards off a plant in the middle of the table but that proved kind of random to have in terms of branding. 

I opted for a simple folding square menu which would close up when not in use. It also acts as a little metaphor for ‘opening the closet door’, but self admittedly that is a bit far fetched of a concept. 

Mug Design

This is the first real product I designed after the rebrand, I used Pebeo porcelaine markers and stencilled the designs onto the marks using a 6B pencil. The markers were unwieldy to use but were still fun, however the end look was not quite what I expected but still not horrifically bad or anything like that. 

Process - Spray painting

I decided to buy a proper mask to protect my lungs from particulate inhalation and set up a cool work station behind the garage. The spray painting was quite enjoyable but also tedious due to the sheer quantity of things that needed to be done. 

Rebrand - Open Market Day

I had this concept of spray painting cutlery rainbow colours and doing like flat lay arrangements, I didn’t have time to execute it until after I came back from Japan but I feel like I made the right decision in doing it. 

It is far more visually appealing, there is depth and a strong visual language is presented. The tone and contemporary nature of the brand is also quite apparent. 

Initial Branding 

This is my first branding concept which drew on the more vintage vibe and was more photographically focused. While I retained the colours and the secondary typeface, the photographic approach was not really appropriate for a café and would be difficult to make positive without making it look tacky or make it not look overly emotional. 

Floor Plan 

Drawing on the responses from the surveys, some of which were conflicting, I created an initial concept for a café based on a venue listing for a café in Newmarket. 

The end result is a community driven, multi-purpose, and highly adaptable café. The central area is built to accomodate events, activities, large groups of people, and encourage communication/connection during normal business hours. There are two separate areas one which is mostly silent and the other which is for more for slightly more private catch up with friends, in order to cater to shy/socially anxious users who will hopefully get accustomed to the space and open up. 

Survey Pt 3.

Organising the responses into similar groupings and seeing what people had to see really mirrored what I personally thought of the queer scene. I also got lots of perspective into things I hadn’t considered like activities, spatial aspects of the café, and just how unwelcome some of these queer people are in the own spaces. There was an alarming number of individuals who did not feel safe in existing queer spaces which I find utterly befuddling.

Additionally I made the mistake of not considering where I put the survey in a way really determines what feedback I received.

e.g.

1. The negative experiences are mostly from my own friend group or friends of friends. Which is kind of like my own experiences in a way.

Survey Pt 2.