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Top Down

Project:   Top Down Visual Identity
Client:   Top Down
Capacity:   Personal Project
Role:   Visual Identity & Branding Design
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Project Background:

Challenge:

Top Down is a dream company for Keara Fenzel. They craft a hard seltzer for women in their late 20’s who enjoy sipping their drinks by a fire pit, on the beach, or at happy hour after a long day of work. Top Down prides itself on unique, complex flavors in a light, effervescent drink. Its for women who enjoy both lounging at craft cocktail bars as well as exploring adventures outdoors. 

“Top Down is about the feeling when you’re driving in a convertible, blasting music with your friends, and loving life. We want to bottle that feeling.”

Goal:

Design a strong visual identity and logo to showcase Top Down’s mission statement, appeal to their target market, and stand apart from competitors.

Process:

Brand Definition Research:

I conducted an interview to understand the target audience and voice. This created an objective road map to filter all future branding decisions through.

"Life should be bubbly, sunny, and fun"
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"When everyone is stuck inside, we’re missing that outside, summertime freedom"
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"more sophisticated, complex seltzer for more mature palettes"
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"We make hard seltzer that helps you find that sunshine feeling no matter the weather"

Customer

       -   Millennials (25-35)

       -   Women

       -   Hip & Sophisticated

       -   Adventurous/Go Getter

       -   Social

Voice

       -   Summery

       -   Feminine but Strong

       -   Effervescent

       -   Jovial & Free

       -   Sophisticated & Elegant (not

             overly stuffy)

Benefit

       -   Recharged

       -   Relaxed

       -   Carefree

       -   Elevated

Value

       -   Empowered

       -   Mature Palette

       -   Worry Free

       -    Artistic

From this, a brand story emerged.

 

Brand Story: Top Down provides a elevated, carefree experience for social, adventurous young women in a warm atmosphere, leaving them feeling relaxed and jovial.


These adjectives created a clear path for Top Down’s creative tone: Carefree Sophistication

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I created a mood board of images I felt reflected this creative tone to reference during my design process.

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Ideation:

Through sketching I drafted over 150 logo options and narrowed it down to my top favorites. I focused on creating sleek lines and minimalist visuals as well as the idea of a convertible with its “top down” driving into warm sunset. These decisions captured the carefree, warm, summery feeling while also adding sophistication.

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I explored different typefaces searching for a good pair of modern and clean, and artistic/feminine with just enough character. 

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I presented some low fidelity mock-ups (below) of the top four logos I created to the client to garner any feedback. The third had the most potential, so I moved forward with the design and made some tweaks.

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main logo

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stacked logo

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alternate logo

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I then created a basic style guide for future reference.

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Outcome:

I designed the product packaging. I chose a sleek glass bottle to convey sophistication as well as making it stand apart from its canned hard seltzer competitors. I implemented vintage elements like sketchy visuals and thin lines, to draw in the elevated, “craft-cocktail bar” feel, but kept the colors light, feminine, and relaxed. The following is the completed brand and logo design for Top Down.

BlueberryBasil.png
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Resolution:

Overall, I was very happy with this visual identity project. It was able to capture the creative tone of "carefree sophistication", form a strong brand identity, and translate that into physical projects and the digital space of social media. One aspect I took away from this project is the importance of logo form. Going forward for future projects I will take in to account creating a logo that could work on a broader scale of applications and sizes instead of having to create alternate logos for those applications.

"Looking at this branding I am astounded at how beautifully Kendall captured my vision. I have had this idea as a pie-in-the-sky dream for years, and she brought it to life! I love the attention to detail, collaborative creativity, and energy she puts into her work."
- Keara Fenzel; Owner of Top Down
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