Research

Before starting to design, research needed to be done. At City Hall, I took photos of possible pop-up areas and took lots of notes about different interactions and observations. Most of the people outside of City Hall were either commuters headed to or from work or people on their lunch break. The initial idea for the pop-up came after learning about Philly’s new voting machines. These digital touch screen machines are completely new for the city’s voters. I wanted to find a way to educate the public on the new machines, as well as register new voters for the 2020 election. The perfect way to do this would be a coffee shop outside of City Hall, where customers can practice using the touch screens and receive a free coffee if they register to vote.

User Persona

My user personas helped to narrow down exactly who the target customer would be. This is Daniel, a millennial who commutes through City Hall and is not a registered voter. He doesn’t want to go completely out of his way to register to vote and is sick of his usual coffee spots, so Grounds for Change is the perfect place for someone like him.

Logo Process

From the start, I wanted to incorporate a layered effect to convey the feeling of change, it was just a matter of figuring out how to do that and with what imagery. The final logo is a simple vector design that shows a patriotic coffee cup, and features the taglines “vote 2020” and “coffee with a cause”.

Branding

Now that the logo and name were complete, I created a style tile that would serve as the brand guidelines for the rest of the design process. This consisted of choosing colors and fonts but was in need of some more photographic imagery. The library had a lot of old photos of Philadelphia voting registration events, City Hall, and election days that made a perfect addition to the brand identity. To elevate the photos one step further, I applied a halftone effect and cut them out to use as collages throughout the designs. I found a few books of spot illustrations to use as well that would work nicely alongside the old photos to make the brand feel complete.

Menu

The touch screen menu serves as a way for voters to practice using the new voting machines before election day. The design is based on the existing user flow for the machines and allows the customers to vote for each aspect of their personalized coffee order. They can choose anything from size and temperature to extras like syrups and sweeteners.

Packaging

To complete the brand identity, I created a bag of coffee grounds, coffee cups, and stickers. These products incorporated all of the aspects of the brand identity, so it was a lot of fun to design these and see Grounds for Change all come together.

Brand Extension

Grounds for Change also has an Instagram feed that acts as another educational tool for voters. Instead of just being simple photos of people drinking coffee, the posts highlight important voting days as well as key political issues that are important to the 2020 election.