Iguana Autentico

Iguana Autentico STYLE GUIDE

Iguana Autentico is a passion-driven proof-of-concept branding project for an innovative coffee start-up. In my role as the team leader and principal designer, I spearheaded a dynamic and collaborative effort that transformed a modest brief into a comprehensive and illustrative brand identity. Navigating through challenges and driving the team through the conceptual phase, naming process, and logo creation, I placed a strong emphasis on research, ensuring our design elements resonated with the client's values and the unique qualities of Ecuadorian coffee farming. Faced with a restricted budget, I leveraged a longstanding client relationship, turning limitations into opportunities for inventive solutions and pushing the boundaries of traditional budgetary constraints.

Our visual identity, anchored by a logo representing Ecuador's unique biomes and the endemic marine iguana, unfolds with a deep green palette symbolizing nature and sustainability. Thoughtful font choices create intentional visual contrast, while the visual language, inspired by scientific journals, weaves hand-drawn sketches and stock imagery. The packaging prototype, meticulously hand crafted, encompasses the visual language and mirrors field journals, reinforcing the brand's unwavering commitment to sustainability.

PROCESS BOOK

DESIGN PROCESS

Our research dove into competitor analysis, targeted demographics, and an exploration of various coffee co-ops’ business models. Extensive demographic studies informed our messaging strategy, focusing on sustainability and ethical farming. We tailored the company’s messaging to align with these principles. Our research efforts were also pivotal during the naming and logo conceptualization phases. Given the client’s intention to collaborate with farmers in Ecuador, our team conducted extensive research into the country’s natural elements.

Before beginning our brand naming process, we analyzed competitors and separated their names into three categories. We compared what was most popular, what rolled off the tongue, and what spoke to the brand’s mission and vision. Next, we created our own categories: natural and animal descriptors; emotional descriptors; sustainability and community concepts; and abstract concepts in both English and Spanish. We brainstormed words, playing around with different combinations. After presenting our options to the client, they chose “Iguana Autentico” as the brand name and “Conscious Coffee Collective” as the tagline.

With the brand name finalized, we embarked on an extensive and iterative process to craft a logo that encapsulated the essence of both my client’s and my team’s vision. The journey began with multiple iterations of mark exploration. We thumbnailed various concepts, specifically targeting imagery that seamlessly integrated abstract and symbolic representations of iguanas. We drew inspiration from nature and thumbnailed concepts that aligned with our core values of hands-on engagement , sustainability, and transparency. Together, we reviewed our thumbnails and refined selected sketches into more refined drawings. Our client actively participated in the decision-making process, choosing five sketches which we then vectorized. Next, we explored diverse type options, experimenting with various san-serif, serif, and decorative fonts, ultimately narrowing down our selection to eight options.

The evolution continued as we seamlessly blended font choices with the refined vector logos, presenting three comprehensive options to the client. Anchored in the overarching theme of ‘iguana as a protector,’ these concepts touched upon traditionalism, the biome in motion, and coffee as abstract. After careful consideration, our client gravitated towards the biome in motion concept, featuring a clean, san-serif font pairing. Ecuador is home to three of the most unique biomes in the world - the Amazon River Basin, The Andes Mountains, and The Galapagos Islands. These three regions and their interconnectivity with the iguana are represented in our brandmark. In this emblematic logo, the iguana is both part of and is moving from the mountain to the rivers. To finesse the typography, we chose lowercase type, stacked the words on top of each other, and thickened the line weight of the word ‘iguana.’ The thin san-serif typeface complemented the brandmark’s density, creating strong visual hierarchy and a harmonious final design.

Following the completion of the logo, we began selecting colors and typefaces to represent the brand. The chosen brand colors were driven by the client’s preference for a deep green as the primary brand color. This rich green hue symbolizes the iguana, the lush landscape, the coffee plant, and the brand’s commitment to sustainability. We opted for a complementary crimson accent color derived directly from the coloring of the marine iguana, representing the brand’s compassion and humanity towards the earth, the farmers, and their community. The ivory and slate colors were drawn from the Andes Mountains. The slate hue reflects the sturdy nature of the brand, mirroring the robust peaks of the Andes, conveying strength and trustworthiness. The light ivory, representing transparency and the brand’s environmentally clean mission, is pure and pristine.

With the logo as our visual anchor, we finalized our font choices for the brand. The header font, Bebas Neue, was selected for its bold, contemporary, and assertive qualities, making it ideal for headers and titles. In contrast, the body copy font, Serenity, was chosen for its clean and sophisticated demeanor, balancing an inviting and warm quality. These fonts create a compelling and intentional visual contrast while reinforcing the brand’s identity and values.

Upon finalizing the logo and brand fonts, our focus shifted to devising a sophisticated visual language for the brand. After deliberation within the team, we settled on a ‘journal’-esque theme, aspiring to emulate the scientific journals of Charles Darwin during his exploration of the Galapagos Islands. This thematic choice is conveyed through elements such as paper, sketches, and realistic foliage. The visual background components of our brand took the form of fragments of well-worn paper assembled in a collage-like fashion. In the midground, we incorporated illustrations of animals, plants, nature, and, prominently, iguanas - drawing inspiration from quick field sketches. In the foreground, line art mimicking natural forms adds vibrant pops of color to the overall aesthetic. Additionally, realistic tropical foliage contributes to a bold and contemporary foreground, creating a deliberate contrast with the more traditional background and midground elements. This intentional fusion of the old and the new, the familiar and the modern, aptly mirrors the mission and vision of the brand. The overall aesthetic seamlessly integrates hand-drawn sketches and stock imagery. This visual language extends into the style guide and packaging, influencing its layout and decorative elements.

In crafting the packaging prototype for Iguana Autentico, I carefully curated style choices that resonated with the brand’s commitment to sustainability and its nature-focused aesthetic. The paper coffee cups and coffee bean bags embraced the brand’s visual language, featuring layered elements reminiscent of the journals. I incorporated torn paper and paper leaves to enhance the visual appeal, giving the packaging a textured and handcrafted feel. Using rubber stamps and dioxide inks, I created patterns and imagery that reflected Ecuador’s diverse flora and fauna. The choice of recycled kraft paper for the coffee bean bags and cups aligned with the brand’s sustainability ethos and added an earthy and authentic touch. This attention to detail reinforced the brand’s values and contributed to the overall narrative of the brand’s dedication to environmental responsibility. The 36 page style guide was printed on Neenah Sundance Brilliant White in a Felt texture. The color allowed for the vibrant display of the background imagery, while the texture added a naturalistic and sustainability-focused look and feel.