Spark & Sparrow
Category: Branding, Packaging, UX Design
Tools Used: Miro, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, XD
Design Team: Kylie Baker, Margot Whipps, Olivia Hadtke
Art Direction: Abby Guido
For this brand, I wanted to appeal to adults buying this product while also appealing to kids. I used a font for my logo that felt vintage yet modern and timeless. I then used eye-catching colors to further appeal to the target audience. I wanted the colors to make this brand feel more fun than a regular food subscription box. Additionally, I wanted to make the website and social media image-based rather than illustration to visually show how the brand would feel if you received a subscription box. I added color overlays and design elements to make the brand feel more playful and fun. The design elements that I chose resemble sparks or heat to further the business concept playfully.
During the pandemic, we were seeking to create a company that provided safe and friendly food service to families across the country. Starting and maintaining a stable and working business during the pandemic is difficult, so we made a goal to combat this through a new and exciting brand. We understand that being stuck in your house for the safety of public health can become boring and repetitive but that doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Our main idea for our company was to bring a new experience to your door safely and uniquely. This includes finding a solution to bring the family together outside of routine while teaching everyone new skills and ideas in the process.
The Problem
We surveyed almost 100 people and asked them a range of questions about the benefits of camping and its general likability. We found 56.8% of people were interested in a unique at-home experience and 87.5% enjoyed outdoor cooking.
While people enjoy camping food and 65.6% of them have the space to do so, 41.7% of people didn’t have the tools. This gave us confirmation to make sure our company would provide the tools and supplies to successfully use our service.
Research
Surveys
Name Generation
My team made multiple mind maps that focused on key elements relating to our product such as camping, nature, and learning to help form our business’s name. What came out of this brainstorming session was our name Spark & Sparrow. The word “Spark” is related to both the idea of a spark from a fire and also sparking learning and “Sparrow” ties in
animals and nature.
User Personas
Our intended audience for this product is families with young kids. We focussed our product to address kids ages 6–12 who, due to the pandemic, are experiencing more extended periods of time on their devices and computers. Other users that we focused on are parents quarantined at home who are trying to engage their kids in healthy activities that would help the whole family relax and unwind during the pandemic.
We then talked directly to one of our group member’s mother and younger sister who fit our user persona and age range to help better define our user personas. From this interview, we gained better insight into what was trending for younger generations, which helped each of us better define who we were designing for.
After establishing a solid user flow with our group we then went on to develop a group wireframe. We got together and drew out the important information that needed to be added and organized it together through card sorting.
Some of the issues we had at first were understanding what information we wanted to put under these sections. We decided to consolidate some of these sections so that the menu section housed information on everything that we offered with tabs that you clicked through to see “Food, Desserts & Drinks”, “Patches”, and “Tools”.
UX Process
For our web design, we started by creating a user flow. With our user flow, we wanted the customer to go through the process of signing up and purchasing the Spark & Sparrow subscription box. Along the way, we looked at what worked and didn’t work for this process and found that an added “Menu” and “How It Works” pages were important for the user to see their options laid out and have access to information on how the product works.
Branding
Logo Process
Initial sketches
For this brand, I wanted to appeal to adults buying this product while also appealing to kids. I used a font for my logo that felt vintage yet modern and timeless. I then used eye-catching colors to further appeal to the target audience. I wanted the colors to make this brand feel more fun than a regular food subscription box. Additionally, I wanted to make the website and social media image-based rather than illustration to visually show how the brand would feel if you received a subscription box. I added color overlays and design elements to make the brand feel more playful and fun. The design elements that I chose resemble sparks or heat to further the business concept playfully.
Style Tile
Desktop Homepage
Picking a Plan
Picking a Meal
Picking Tools
Mobile Homepage
Ordering Process
Website
Extended Branding
Box Designs
Activity Patches
Instagram Profile
Recipe Cards
Overall, this project has been a new experience for all of us. Not only was it a challenge to come up with a completely new venture from the perspective of current times, but to do a full semester project as a team digitally. It wasn’t an easy task but when we built a strong foundation of brainstorming, research, and planning, and all ended up with strong brands. Ideas and concepts can always be pushed further and in an ideal world, we all would’ve appreciated much more time to realize this project.
Despite the rushed times and challenges of Zoom and digital teamwork, we can all agree, it was a very unique project that we had the chance to realize both as a group and on our own.