Case Study: Coca Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. As a final project with the American Board of Design (AMBOD) I choose to rebrand and redesign Coca-Cola's logo by creating stylescapes and a style guide.

Strategy & Process

After weeks of exploration and strategy meetings with AMBOD's cofounder, Jonathan Bowman, he helped me develop a direction for the new identity and bring it to life.

It brings me joy to lean into this experience and redesign a product that has been so iconic since 1892.

Competitor Analysis

Logo Research

One of my tasks was to research the following questions:

What makes people choose Coca-Cola?
What do you like about the Coca-Cola Logo?
What about the Coca-Cola brand do you like?

I asked around town and found the following results, see my findings below.

Logo Research

Stylescapes

The first step in creating a style guide was to start with a stylescape to elicit an emotional response to the brand look and feel. I did this by carefully collecting a combination of images, textures, typography and colors to communicate a certain look and feel of the brand. Creating the stylescape helps with the design direction before designing anything. I created 3 versions: Mild, Medium and Spicy.

Since this was a final project, Jonathan from AMBOD, acted as the client, and choose the Spicy stylescape.

Logo Design

Once the inspiration was created with the stylescapes, the next step was to draw out and recreate Coca-Cola's logo.

Pulling in a major focus on the word "Coca-Cola, the logo was constructed (with masterful precision) over the course of 12 weeks total; with the last 2 weeks focused on minor adjustments. I added a focused effervescence that takes the consumer the feeling of embarking on a tastebud journey. You can also see a spark or a bubble in the same medial ascension, that alludes to the metaphor of sparking your taste buds, bubbles and effervescence the founding team achieved by building its product and brand.

Brand Book

Lastly, I created a brand book to describe the Coca-Cola brand's user manual. It is a key tool that lets everyone know in detail how to use the new brand image. I designed and wrote this Brand Book.

the New Identity

The rebrand was universally loved by both AMBOD and myself. With the guidance and structure provided by Jonathan, I did all the design work and ensured it all came together.

Conclusion

I enjoyed the opportunity and experience I developed in creating this Brand Book. From this project alone, I spent countless hours and months expanding my knowledge even further as a designer. If I had more time I would of spent more time perfecting the logo.

Thank you for reading my case study. If you have any questions regarding my work or looking for a product designer you can connect with me here. Or email me direct.

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