Pop-up cafés and food trucks thrive on big personality. They need to grab attention quickly and build loyalty through story and vibe.

For this assignment, your group will function as the client and each of you will act as a design team to deliver to this fictional client.

As a client, act as if you don’t have the capability of designing yourself and instead your team is head strong on making the next cool traveling pop-up cafe / food truck sure to be the talk of the town. (examples: a horror-themed coffee stand, a grandma-run dumpling truck, a futuristic bubble tea shop)
As the designer, your role is to ask questions about their concept, audience, and personality — then translate those insights into a visual identity. The client has a chance to showcase a new brand at their next event, but it’s coming up fast in two weeks! Working with the the client, create a logo they can use for their event to showcase the new business venture you’ve somehow gotten yourself into.

Wednesday, September 17th

Assignments Due

Start of Class:

01.1-Thingbat Logos

End of Class:

Project 2 Kickoff Post

In Class:

Critique of 01.1 Thingbat Logos
Project 2 Kickoff
1. Pair off into teams of 2 (one team of 3)
2. Take 10-15 minutes to think of a pop-up cafe or food truck you would love to be a patron of. So much so, you decide to make one yourselves! But unfortunately, you don’t have time to design it on your own.
  1. I know it’ll be hard but try NOT think about design aesthetics at first. Instead, just focus on what you want to sell and why. Your favorite food? Does it bring back any personal memories? Family recipes? Maybe something interesting or just simply unique that’ll make it trendy and cool? Find a commonality that your team would jive with.
  2. You must think of:
    1. Company name
    2. What you’re selling
    3. 1 unique trait / factor – what would make this business unique?
3. Set restrictions
  - Once you’ve made your company, roll for restrictions! Josh will roll 2 d-10 dice and the results will be “mystery asks” to add as client demand
    1. Color Restriction – “The brand must only use 2 colors (client’s favorites).”
    2. Logo Shape Requirement – “The logo must fit inside a perfect circle or square.”
    3. Typography Request – “The client insists on using a script font somewhere in the identity.”
    4. Animal/Character Inclusion – “The client wants an animal/mascot incorporated (real or imaginary).”
    5. Cultural/Location Influence – “The identity must reference the client’s hometown, heritage, or culture.”
    6. Unexpected Application – “The client needs the logo to work on an unusual item (apron, chopsticks, tote bag, delivery scooter).”
    7. Style Inspiration – “The client insists the design is inspired by a decade or art style (e.g., 1970s disco, Bauhaus, Vaporwave).”
    8. Name-Driven Design – “The client wants the logo to be primarily typographic, with no illustrations or icons.”
    9. Opposite Audience Twist – “The client claims their food is for one audience, but the design must attract the opposite (e.g., for kids but branded to adults, or vice versa).”
    10. Mood Contradiction – “The client wants the brand to feel both fun/playful and serious/professional at the same time.”
4. As a design team… Ask yourselves questions you need to better deliver a cohesive logo
  1. What is the overall vision for this cafe / food truck?
  2. Who is the largest target audience?
  3. Find existing material as a moodboard with other inspirations for your aesthetics
  4. What do you want your audience to feel / react to your brand?
  5. How can the restrictions / requests be used as an advantage in the design?
5. Write a post with:
  1. Post Title – (Company Name) Pop-Up Kicks Off
  2. Team members / Team names
    1. Only one team member needs to write the post.
  3. Company name you plan to pop-up
  4. What you’re selling
  5. your unique trait / factor – what would make this business unique?
  6. your 2 restrictions
  7. Design team questions

Keep the deliverables / applications you’ll build later in mind

Menu sign with Full Logo and (fake) QR code – no need to design out a full menu, we are JUST looking for your logo approach. Feel free to use lorem ipsum to get the layout’s overall feel.
Full Logo for T-shirt, stickers & swag – this logo may alter slightly from the final design to better stand out on a shirt
Icons for social media – think simplistic and minimal, Icons are small and don’t show a lot of detail!

Monday, September 22nd

Assignments Due

Start of Class:

Nothing (Kick off post was the last assignment)

End of Class:

Thumbnail Sketches

In Class:

Create Thumbnails
1. Draw at least 5 different concepts (not versions of one idea) on one (or two pages). Photograph and clean up and upload to your DropBox in a new folder 02_PopUp Shop
  1. Examples: This is What is Expected
Make your logos
1. Using your thumbnails as a start, get started! This project has an aggressive timeline so you need to make your thumbnails and start some digital sketches. Feel free to send them to Josh for feedback before the next class if your want.
  
  Make three concepts digitally to present Wednesday. They don’t have to be perfect but select your typefaces and work on the logos.
  
  Take a look at these logos and consider using one of the the typefaces here. They are all pretty great.
Upload the following to DropBox folder:
1. Make a folder inside EACH of your individual folders for the class (This will make it easier for grading)
  Folder Name: 02_PopUp
2. Thumbnails: one (or two) pages of thumbnail sketches
  Filenames: 02 PopUp thumbnails.pdf
3. Three logo concepts: From the thumbnails develop three concepts into computer versions
  Black and White first — color versions will be later
  Filenames: 02 PopUp Logo Drafts.pdf

Wednesday, September 24th

Assignments Due

Start of Class:

3 logo Drafts of pop-up shop

End of Class:

V1 Logo

In Class:

Internal Crit of logo drafts
Narrow choices down to 1 logo – fine tune for v1 submission
Update logos for V2 critique Monday
Work on building out your client presentation for Class – page index written at the bottom of this page

Monday, September 29th

Assignments Due

Start of Class:

V2 logos

End of Class:

In Class:

Internal Crit of V2 Logos
Meet with Design team
1. Submit for Wednesdays final critique
2. Your single (final v3) logo should be on 11″ x 8.5″ horizontal page on DropBox
3. Continue working on your client presentation for Wednesday!

Folder: 02 Pop Up – Food Druck
Filenames: 02 PopupFoodTruck FINAL.pdf

Wednesday, October 1st

Assignments Due

Start of Class:

V3 Final PopUp Logos (shown within Client Presentation decks)

End of Class:

In Class:

Client Presentation to class / Critique

Finalize your logo designs and create a presentation of your work. This should be another application / reference to the overall style of the pop-up

MOCKUP Templates

Cover page
Black and White Logo
Color Logo
Truck Wrap
Menu
Full Logo for T-shirt
3 social posts
- Include Social Icons: square and circle

Your presentation should be a reflection of the pop-up’s identity. It isn’t a “brand guide” but should clearly show your design system / motif’s used to established a well-rounded design system.

Upload to Dropbox

Monday, October 6th

Assignments Due

Start of Class:

Client Presentations

End of Class:

None

In Class:

Pop-Up Critique
Movie Identity Project Introductions and Poll Post
- Poll Post
  - Look through the movies and sampled characters (just to help spur some ideas) listed on the Movies List page. Links to an external site.Write a post with your vote for your top two movie choices to have a class vote on what we will decide, and 3 preferred characters within each movie. Better yet, like anyone else’s post you’d like to do too!
    
    Post Copy Template (Copy & Paste)
    
    Movie Name
    
    Favorite line if you have one
    
    3 preferred characters (this is NOT calling dibbs!)