Final Project

Final Project

For this project, I created a set of three Instagram posts—designed in square, portrait, and story formats—for a fictional coffee shop with an experimental concept. The designs explore a playful yet modern visual style, using consistent colors, fonts, and graphic elements to tie the series together. By applying the design principles covered in the specialization, I aimed to highlight the shop’s imaginative identity while ensuring the layouts remain visually engaging, adaptable to different Instagram dimensions, and effective in delivering a cohesive message.

All of the visuals were created exclusively in Adobe Illustrator, with Adobe Color used to develop a harmonious and eye-catching palette. Photoshop was used only for producing the final mockup. The free mockup was downloaded from Graphic Pear.

To establish a clear direction for the project, I began by brainstorming the concept and identity of the fictional brand. The idea centers on a specialty coffee shop in 2025 that offers experimental drinks and in-house roasted beans at moderate prices. The goal was to capture a modernist and futuristic feel—something clean, professional, and lab-like, yet still exciting and approachable. I focused on emotions such as optimism, curiosity, and high-tech imagination, while avoiding the typical “warm and cozy” coffee shop aesthetic. For attention, I envisioned strong colors and unusual names that would stand out on Instagram. These elements defined the creative brief and guided the design of three deliverables:

A main logo image designed in the Instagram square format.

A specialty drip coffee/espresso post created in the Instagram portrait format.

A teaser story with a reinforcing visual element presented in the Instagram story format.

The idea for exploring old technology came from wanting to capture an “old future” feel—the retro-futurism of works like 2001: A Space Odyssey—but updated with modern colors and design choices to feel current while still clearly inspired by past visions of the future. Since this was an unconventional project where the name itself was part of the brief, I used research not only to shape the visual direction but also to define the brand identity.

My exploration began with old tech references, where a Dieter Rams radio design immediately stood out. Its clean, functional aesthetic reflected the modernist and experimental qualities I wanted, and it sparked the idea of using radio as a metaphor for communication and connection.

Looking deeper into radio and wave frequencies, I found the concept of <3 Hz, which marks the lower limit for what qualifies as radio waves. Below this threshold, natural geomagnetic variations dominate—such as solar storms and the Earth’s magnetic wobble—making the frequencies impractical for communication. This duality inspired me: while <3 Hz has a scientific ring to it, in practice it’s “just vibes.” I chose <3 Hz as the coffee shop’s name, blending technical credibility with playful energy to reflect the experimental, futuristic identity of the brand.

To solidify the direction, I assembled a mood board made up of science-inspired designs, vintage tech objects, and early modernist graphics, paired with modern interior design and contemporary coffee equipment. This mix helped bridge the retro-futuristic inspiration with a more current sensibility. For the design aesthetic, I wanted a clean and flat layout style influenced by Bauhaus principles but not as strictly minimal—structured and professional, but with room for bold colors and playful, experimental touches that match the shop’s concept.

To set the aesthetic direction, I designed the logo around the idea of <3 Hz—less than three wave cycles—using two full circles and one partial cycle as the core symbol. Since the deliverable was a square Instagram post intended as a profile picture, I added a grid to reinforce the scientific and experimental concept while framing the design for the format. The color palette combined warm and cold tones, tying together the science theme of energy with the coffee theme of hot and cold beverages. The colors were kept strong enough to grab attention yet calm enough to feel clean and professional, setting the tone for the rest of the project.

The portrait post was designed to showcase the shop’s specialty coffee offerings while reinforcing the brand’s visual identity. The wave motif and the warm–cool color palette were carried over to maintain consistency. The post highlighted two daily options—espresso and filter—with key details such as origin, elevation, and flavor profile.

The logo structure inspired the layout: each circular element was reimagined as a coffee-related symbol—orange as a top-view espresso, grey as a V60, and blue as an abstract form lightly referencing a timer. To add variation while keeping the identity cohesive, an alternative logomark was also incorporated into the design.

The teaser story was designed to reinforce the visual identity while offering something more dynamic and engaging than a straightforward product post. At first glance, the main graphic appears to show a science experiment, but on closer inspection it is actually a coffee-related image—an espresso machine extracting into a flask. This subtle twist connects back to the brand’s experimental theme while keeping coffee at the core.

The design followed a similar style to the portrait post, maintaining consistency in colors and motifs, but the composition was altered to highlight the new elements. This kept the story recognizable as part of the set while adding freshness and variation suited to the Instagram story format.

As an additional presentation piece, I created a single mockup image featuring the three designs applied to coffee cups. This showed how the visuals could extend beyond social media into a physical product, reinforcing the brand’s identity in a tangible way. The mockup helped highlight the adaptability of the logo, color palette, and motifs while tying the three posts together as a cohesive set.