Art Direction Bootcamp
Brand Project
UCLA Extension
About the Project
A desire to connect with our history consumes us. Stories are a recipe for that kind of connection. Passage and Provisions is a documentary food podcast that feels like you’re gathering around the kitchen with your family. Maybe even a family you never knew you had.
Outcome
Project resulted in a completed visual identity and business strategy for the brand, including SWOT analysis and value proposition.
Company/Client:
Personal project created for
UCLA Extension's Art Director Bootcamp
My Contributions to Project:
• Design research & development
• Audience interviews
• Campaign photography
• Visual identity & logo design
• Copywriting
• Art direction
Logo Design
The name Passage & Provisions was selected to represent both voyages made by our ancestors and the foods that they brought on those journeys.
The logo was inspired by vintage hand-drawn maps of old San Juan. It was developed using the typeface Tampico, combined with the touch-type tool and making adjustments to paths to give each letter a unique and rough feel. Imperfection was the key to make the logo work.
Brand Colors
The brand’s palette reflects colors of ingredients commonly found in Caribbean cooking. Primary colors are a deep orange, green, and brown. Secondary tones are brighter green, orange, yellow and a neutral beige. Care was taken to ensure Puerto Rico-specific colors weren’t used to allow for potential expansion of the show's future topics.
Typography as voice
The typefaces selected for body copy and headlines should evoke feelings of curiosity, such as emotions you would get when flipping through a book in a dusty bookstore or reading through a forgotten letter.
Because of this skeuomorphic reference to real-world materials, a serif font that could be found on a typewriter was appropriate.
Typeface: Click-clack
Audience Research
Target Audience
Passage & Provision’s audience age range is gen z through millennial and is likely second-generation stateside Puerto Ricans. Although they weren’t born on their island and probably have never been there, they are still proud of their heritage and ancestors for the hardships they overcame.
They might feel a disconnect from their heritage and want to learn more about it – both the good and the bad. Through the foods explored on the podcast, they’ll learn more about the broken diasporas that created the people of Puerto Rico and led the audience to who they are today.
Interviews & Mindmapping Answers
While developing the brand’s pitch, target audience interviews were conducted via Zoom. Participants were asked questions that would inform the auditory direction of the podcast’s initial episodes. Answers were synthesized into visual mindmaps for the purpose of the exercise.
Photography
Photography aligns with current art direction used by culinary and cookware brands that target millennial and gen-z audiences such as Great Jones, Omsom, Brightland and Diaspora Co. By using the trend of bright and “harshly lit” photography, we are able to evoke a feeling of summer warmth.
For the photography, I utilized my home studio. Props included banana leaves as the backdrop (an ingredient that is used to give flavor in Puerto Rican cooking), and a broken dish and shredded onion skin to symbolize broken connections and diaspora.
Initial Design Options
