Forest Wong
Menus, merchandise, interiors, branding, and marketing materials
I designed as the creative director and co-founder of Union Coffee Club
Union Coffee Club is a small-town cafe that prides itself on building community through the art of coffee. They are known to feature a multi-roaster coffee program which, combined with their homemade syrups and recipes, opens the door to fun and exciting experiments in flavor combinations.
The branding of Union Coffee Club reflects the cafe's commitment to quality and creativity.
Brand Identity
Coffee is a part of people's daily routines, so a subdued blue was chosen to evoke the sky. This soft blue opens up opportunities to create contrast in warm and cool color combinations.
The typography showcases a classic serif and sans-serif combination. Helvetica Neue was chosen for its simplicity and recognizability, and Charter for its friendliness and flexible weight variation.
Union Coffee Club's logo is inspired by the cloverleaf knot, a symbol in Chinese culture that is used to bring good luck. Our logo reduces the knot to basic forms while still maintaining dynamic curves that twist into themselves.
The logo's simplicity also opens the door to limitless reinterpretation and the ability to scale up in complexity.
Join the Club Campaign
My Role: Director, Photographer, Designer
Credits: Madison Miller (Assistant Director), Cherie Krantz (Stylist/Makeup Artist/Model), Makayla Miller (Model), Joseph Cataline (Model)
My goal in creating the Join the Club Campaign was to establish UCC as a coffee-forward cafe that doesn't take itself too seriously. UCC is playful and experimental, and drinking our coffee means engaging in a larger community that values quality and creativity. UCC is more than just coffee, it's a lifestyle.
I envisioned a flash-photography style shoot utilizing our flower bloom logo designs. With bright pops of color and mixed patterns inspired by the early y2k aesthetic, I aimed to convey a visual style that was young, flashy, and fun.
Menus & Posters
Interior Design
The cafe's interior features modern, soft, and natural elements while incorporating the beauty and history of the original building.
From concept to reality, my first step in designing the cafe interior was to create a simple 3D model based on the floor plan dimensions. This allowed me to develop an understanding of the space and scale.
This asset proved incredibly helpful when designing individual elements, since my designs could be seen first in a digital space, and the dimensions were then able to be translated on a 1:1 scale and brought directly to the construction team.
Center sitting area
Corner lounge area
Boardroom reservation space
AC covering and bookshelf sketches
Cafe view from the mezzanine level
Wall design visualized with 3D modeling
Zines
A year after our opening, I created and designed Union Coffee Club's zine series, which gave the public more insight into coffee and the cafe. Customers were encouraged to grab a free copy while checking out at the counter.
