Yun | My Site

Visual Brand Identity Proposal

Feb 2024 - May 2024

UX/UI Design Contract

Towards the end of the 2023 Spring Semester, Playbook hosted a 12 hour AI and Art Design Hackathon with a focus on Brand Visual Identities. They tasked us to “Design a visual Identity with AI Tools.” My main contributions were the concept, logo, and website prototyping.

We were assigned with the sub-prompt of designing a shoe brand with messaging focused on innovative sustainability through earthy and neutral colors, with a friendly and approachable tone complimented by simple, clean, and modern applications.

The problem

Team: Andrew Lin, Halie Sung, Christina Kan, Darice Wong, David Chen

Our solution

My Role/Responsibilities

Project Manager, Logo Design, Design System, Product Design

Color Palette: A sophisticated color palette inspired by Chinese watercolor paintings evoke a sense of natural tranquility, aligning with the brand’s commitment to sustainability.

Logo & Imagery: The logo uses traditional cloud painting shape language to etch the chinese character for Clouds, evoking the feeling of light and comfortable footwear.

Typography: The decision to use uppercase "YUN" ensures clarity and consistency, especially in promotional materials and packaging.

Inspiration

I was drawn to the concept of mixing modern urban street designs and shape language with traditional Chinese colors and materials - especially beads and cloths of Northern China.

How can we combine ancient Chinese aesthetics with modern fashion?

Ideation

Observations

While mind mapping concepts for the core traits of the brand, I narrowed down four requisite categories into achievable and identifiable ideas.
I wanted to take advantage of the logographic roots of Chinese to create a universally understood logo

For the concept and logo, I focused on: shape language, pronunciation, and meaning. We decided on the name 云”Yun” or clouds - inspired by the cloud paintings of ancient China - evoking the image of standing on a sea of clouds.

Highlighted Sections: Chinese/Asian Heritage, Hip-Hop/Dance, Recyclable, Shape Language/Inspo, Comfort, Simple Minimalist Concept, Old Style High Fashion

双 - Pair (ex. Pair of shoes)
舒 - Comfort (ex. comfortable shoes)
永 - Eternal (ex. eternally lasting materials)
环 - Circular (ex. recyclable material usage)
云 - Clouds (ex. light and breathable design)

Experimentation: I played around with the idea of a sun beneath the clouds hovering above the earth by replacing the diagonal line of the original character with a circle symbolizing the sun, and maintained the original slant on the right symbolizing the mountains on earth.

Logo Development

After establishing the core design motif inspired by traditional Chinese cloud paintings, which convey a sense of serenity, we quickly began work on establishing the defining brand elements. This involved a meticulous process of selecting a harmonious color palette, choosing the right typography, and creating unique patterns that would not only reflect our aesthetic vision but also embody our commitment to sustainability and cultural heritage.

Brand Kit

Logo Application

While developing a pattern for promotional materials and packaging, I was forced to choose between my preferred lower-case ‘yun’ below the logo or uppercase in order to maintain consistent branding for the patterns.

Another unfortunate discovery was that “yun” is similar to “gun” in lowercase. So we opted for an all uppercase YUN for clarity and simplicity in repeating patterns.

Fonts & Color Pallete

We were conflicted between minimalist and more calligraphic fonts - eventually opting for minimalist for brand readability and modernity. The color palette was selected to evoke the idea of Chinese watercolor paintings of the mountains and clouds blended with modern western boutique aesthetics.

Brand Application

Web Design

Posters & Logo Application

Posters

Package Design

Reflection

I'm extra proud of this project because of its connection to my cultural identity. Through this 24 hour design sprint, I learned how to graphically design posters and packaging on the fly - introducing me to the techniques of product packaging design and posters. Although we didn’t win the designathon, I couldn’t be more proud of the execution and application of our brand identity and generative AI