03 | 꼬삐오 Kopi-o | Part 1 Logo Design

A taste of Singapore in the heart of Seoul.

The client:

Singaporeans who wish to introduce local kopi and teh to the Korean cafe scene.

Today's task:

Design a logo for Kopi-o!

Taking root in the overcrowded Korean cafe scene

Korea is known for its cafe culture, with unique concepts ranging from the modern and minimalistic, to traditional hanok cafes. My "clients" however, have something new to bring to the table.

It is to their knowledge that, amongst the Korean community, kaya toast has been widely touted as a must-try when visiting Singapore. And with kaya toast, often comes kopi (or teh), the unfamiliar local beverage that calls itself coffee (or tea), but tastes different. Ordering it is also a whole other challenge - kopi-o-kosong-peng...? Is that the scientific name for my AA (read: ah-ah, i.e. iced americano)?

Ggo-bbi-oh?

The brand is written as "Ggo-bbi-oh" in Korean, to replicate the local pronunciation of "Kopi O" where the letters 'k' and 'p' are not aspirated.

Logo design

I wanted to introduce a symbol that would represent Singapore, and eventually landed on the national flower. The orchid illustration is kept simple and elegant. Though I can't be sure that everyone who sees the logo will recognise the orchid as a representation of Singapore, surely viewers of Korean drama Little Women will draw such an association!

I had a lot of fun working on the third slide - imagining that the brand name was made of coffee cups and glasses!

Color Palette

It took me a loooong time to land on the color palette for the brand (somehow I'm always struggling with colors!). I couldn't decide whether to give up the 'orchid purple' or the 'SG red', and didn't like having both colors in one palette. Well, it's clear which color I eventually discarded haha. I like that the final palette gives off garden city vibes haha.

Poster Mockups

I find there's so much creative liberation in introducing one's local culture to a foreign community! Exploring ways to familiarise the Korean community with our local ways (and trying to "marry" the two cultures) brings its own set of exciting challenges.

Here, I focused on a challenge I've mentioned above - probably one that is most daunting to the untrained customer - how does drink ordering work?

Break it down! While doing up the "drink formula" poster, I realised it's not that different from ordering bubble tea - "sugar level? ice? toppings?". That's great, the learning curve (of ordering kopi) isn't as steep as I had thought it would be. For the ones who don't have the time and patience to learn the system, I would also offer some drink recommendations based on what they usually order at cafes! (Disclaimer: I'm not so much a kopitiam connoisseur myself, and I apologise if the formula/recommendations below are not accurate. Proper research has not been conducted. Don't come for me haha.)

I'm thinking of fleshing out packaging options (plastic bag kopi?) as well as food menus/posters (kaya toast needs to make its appearance!) in upcoming posts. Fun fun fun.

No more kopi -- annyeong!