DUOCUP
BRAND IDENTITY
DURATION Two months
PROJECT BRIEF To create a brand identity for a new company created by a team of Business Management students in the process of developing a company.
BACKGROUND
Duocup is a water bottle that uses heating and cooling technology to keep cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot. The goal of the product is to condense the number of reusable water bottles a person needs. The target audience includes active students who want to reduce plastic bottle wastage.
OVERVIEW
This project involved teaming up with a group of Business students who were developing a product they called DuoCup. The process involved meeting with the students to better understand their company and product and working with them to create a brand identity that communicated their purposes and goals. There were two designers paired with each group of business students. After presenting logo options, the group of business students chose the one they wanted to further develop.
RESEARCH
The first step in the research phase involved meeting with the clients to discuss the values and goals of their company. They discussed their wish to have a logo that conveyed both a cool and a warm feeling, possibly something that split.
The next phase of research involved competetive analysis. I looked at existing reusable bottle brands, such as Hydroflask and Klean Kanteen, to see the existing trends, as well as how they handled the logo placement on the product.
STRATEGY AND DESIGN
PHASE 1 | Logo Development
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I started by sketching ideas and brainstorming ways to convey heat and cold. I decided that I wanted to somehow incorporate a water droplet, as the product is a water bottle. For the first part of the design process, I began by further developing three of my sketches. I presented these sketches to the group of business students, and they were able to choose their favorite one.
PHASE 2 | Refinement
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The team of business students picked the third option, where the water droplet is in the shape of the letter “u.” Creating this variation began with creating a water droplet and essentially splitting it in half. From there it evolved, and the middle portion of the water droplet was taken out. This allowed it to visually look like the letter “u” which is used in both “duo” and “cup.” Having the droplet be reminiscent of a “u” allowed me to incorporate the visual part of the logo directly into the name The use of color was also crucial for the design, as colors can often convey the feeling of hot and cold. For the colors, I decided on using oranges and blues.
CHALLENGES
One of the challenges was practicing clear and effective communication with the client. They were very busy with their classes and, therefore, our main form of communication was texting, and occasionally email. I usually find face-to-face communication easier when trying to explain an idea or concept. Using these different forms of communication required me to improve on the clarity of my writing. While it was a challenge to almost solely communicate in this manner, it ended up working well and we were able to work together to create a brand identity for their product.
EFFECTIVENESS
The logo I created was chosen as the final logo for the group of business students. They used the logo for a presentation they gave to a panel of judges and investors.