#redevelop

Hurricane Agatha roars toward Mexico; could redevelop in Atlantic

Historic Hurricane Agatha took aim at Mexico’s southern coast Monday with sustained winds of 110 mph, heavy storm surge and driving rains prompting fears of killer flooding and mudslides. Up to 20 inches of rain were forecast for some areas. “Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves,” warned National Weather Service Hurricane Specialist John Cangialosi, adding…

This week during isolation I had the time to reconsider my beverage brand and label. I seemed to have hit a wall with my second idea and felt like I couldn’t extend myself further in order to produce something I was really proud of. So I began to brainstorm a new concept. I am deeply inspired by magic and mythology and spirituality. This really drove my new beverage brand concept.

My new concept

This new beverage concept which I have developed is still a Kombucha brand. I will be changing the name to Elemental Kombucha and the new slogan will be ‘EXIST IN YOUR ELEMENT.’ 

According to dictionary.com, the adjective elemental is defined as:

1. of the nature of an ultimate constituent; simple; uncompounded.

2. pertaining to rudiments or first principles.

3. starkly simple, primitive, or basic: a spare, elemental prose style; hate, lust, and other elemental emotions.

4. pertaining to the agencies, forces, or phenomena of physical nature: elemental gods.

5. comparable to the great forces of nature, as in power or magnitude: elemental grandeur.

6. of, relating to, or of the nature of the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire, or of any one of them.

Taking my beverage brand into account, definition number 6 and 4 relate the strongest to my overall concept and why I chose to name this brand ‘Elemental Kombucha.’

Mind map and image association:

CONCEPT 1:

Star signs are divided and collected into different elements (earth, fire, water and air).

Earth signs include Capricorn, Virgo and Taurus.

Fire signs include Aries, Leo and Sagittarius.

Water signs include Scorpio, Cancer and Pisces.

Air signs include Gemini, Libra and Aquarius.

For this first creative path, I want to focus on minimalism and typography the sell the product. Taking inspiration from Replica and Chanel perfume, I want my label to be 100% typography. I want display the logo, slogan, element (e.g air), star sign (e.g gemini), and traits of the star sign (e.g for gemini it would be curious, gentle and affectionate) and connecting all of this back to the flavour of the beverage (eg apple cinnamon or strawberry lemonade).

Source of Inspo:

Mindmap:

Keywords x 10

Glass, bottle, collection, kombucha, elements, horoscope, traits, spirituality, minimalism, elegant

CONCEPT 2:

The four kinds of elemental beings are each composed of one element (earth, fire, water and air). 

Earth elementals include gnomes, trolls and pixies.

Fire elementals include dragons, salamanders and unicorns.

Water elementals include mermaids, mermen, nymphs and wyverns.

Air elementals include fairies, sylphs and elves.

For this second creative path, I want to focus on a fun and colourful kombucha can collection with illustrations of elemental beings being the main attraction of the beverage. I will do this by matching each elemental being to a colour and a flavour. For example, the Earth elemental may be green to represent the earth, the character on the front on the can might be a gnome and the flavour might be sour apple. I want to do follow this process through for the 4 different signs (earth, fire, water and air).

Source of Inspo:

Mind map:

Keywords x 10:

Change is good, generally. It keeps us from stagnating. The challenge of new ideas and new ways of doing things is good for our brains and drives adaptation and innovation. It underpins our evolutionary development.

In London, despite many years of imposed Austerity and economic and social decline for the general population, property developers continue to be busy, avariciously gambling on unsustainable future growth that fails to account for the exigencies of the pivotal era we live in.

New buildings continue to be built. Futuristic office buildings and luxury apartment complexes, so beloved by international investors, but which create sterile, private spaces we are only allowed to pass through because we are monitored with an extreme effort by the biggest CCTV network in the world. Added to this is some infrastructure development, namely the prestige project of Crossrail - the Elizabeth Line, which has cut a swathe through the West End and outwards both east and west.

Setting aside the larger social questions, I just wanted to mark the disappearance of two buildings that had a unique character, and are now gone. The first of these is a remarkably steel-clad, brutalist building in Vauxhall owned by BT.

This has been replaced by a far less dramatic-looking and dismayingly typical, banal residential development, as can be seen on Street View.

On the south side of Blackfriars Bridge was a stone and steel-clad office building with 70s-style smoked glass windows. This is recently demolished and the site is currently being redeveloped. There is perhaps a possibility that what replaces is it might have some architectural merit. It is a prominent location which can be seen from across the river so is it’s possible that it might be attention-seeking and quirky.

Lastly, I just wanted to mark the disappearance of my favourite Chinese Takeaway restaurant, the Victory, on Mitcham Lane in Streatham. They had the best sweet and sour pork, Hong Kong style, and I miss them.