Venida Case Study
Introduction: My package design project started by asking myself: If I created another product how do I make it unique? What type of products were the shelves missing? Horchata, a popular Honduran drink, was one of the items that immediately came to mind. Originally my Horchata product was just a dairy-free milk alternative brand. I eventually considered how I could represent Honduran culture through horchata.
Eating as a family is an important part of Latin culture. It is a time for family to come together and enjoy food that has been prepared for everyone. It’s most common to drink horchata with a meal or snack. I knew focusing on the cultural aspect was not enough. Interestingly, horchata is never marketed as a dairy-free beverage. That is where I found an opportunity to market this new product. I knew my project should focus on representing my mother’s culture by presenting the beverage from a new perspective.
Design Skills:
Branding
Packaging Design
Illustration
Project Overview
1. Create a new brand and logo
2. Design packaging for a product with three variations
3. Products must use a bottle, container, can, or jar.
Explaining the Product: What is Horchata?
Horchata (pronounced or-CHAH-tah) is a popular drink in many Latin Countries. Horchata is a sweet dairy-free beverage spiced with cinnamon and sugar, typically served with meals or consumed as a snack. The base for the drink is made by soaking either rice, seeds, or nuts in water overnight. The most popular way to make Honduran horchata is with a seed called morro (also called Jicaro seeds) or rice, depending on which part of the country.
The global dairy alternatives market size was estimated at USD 11.90 billion in 2017. Rising consumer focus on nutritional values such as low calories and high proteins and vitamins offered by milk substitutes or dairy analogs is likely to have a positive impact on the market.
The Increasing consumption of rice milk for manufacturing snacks and baking goods is projected to have a positive impact on market growth. Rice milk is the least allergic dairy substitute and has witnessed high demand from consumers with milk and nut allergies.
Market Research
Premade horchata and powder horchata mix can be found in Spanish grocery stores or the "ethnic food" aisle in grocery stores such as Publix and Walmart.
Competitive Research: Horchata
Competitive Research: Dairy-Free Milk
Koia is a plant-based protein drink, low in sugar & net carbs, healthy fiber and always delicious.
Ripple aims to make dairy-free” as it should be”: high in protein, low in sugar, loaded with nutrition, and delicious.
Rebbl’s mission is to craft truly delicious, indulgent beverages made from real, organic ingredients without dairy, soy, refined sugars, and carrageenan.
Brand Story
Venida is a brand aiming to bring Honduran style horchata to a new market. Venida strives to represent Honduras on the shelves for Honduran-Americans, immigrants, and members of other Latin communities, spread Honduran culture, and shine a new perspective on the product by appealing to dairy-alternative consumers.
Main Qualities: authentic, refreshing, welcoming
Unique Selling Point: Represent and introduce Honduran culture to a larger audience through a convenient, dairy-free drink with fresh and authentic ingredients, yet remain approachable for those unfamiliar with the beverage.
Moodboard
Picking a Brand Name
Original Brand Name: “Fresca” (the Spanish word for “fresh”)
If I had to take a guess, picking a name for the brand must be like trying to name a child. How do you choose that one word that represents an entire company? When I thought of Fresca, I thought I found the perfect name. It is an easy-to-pronounce Spanish word and it's catchy. I didn't realize there was an existing soda brand named Fresca. To avoid confusion, it was back to the drawing board for brand names.
The New Name
New Brand Name: Venida
Writing down any Spanish words related to food expanded to common Spanish expressions which led me to the word “bienvenidos/bienvenidas” or welcome. It's a common Spanish word used to greet guests. I shortened it to Venida to make it easy to remember and pronounce
Label Sketches
After receiving critiques from my classmates I found the bottom two drawings were the more successful versions of my label. The bottom left utilized the shape of the morro seed and leaf of the plant in a repeating pattern. The bottom right design abstracted different horchata ingredients into a pattern.
I agreed with the feedback to incorporate meaning into the patterns. It gives it conceptual value. Random geometric lines and shapes can look visually appealing but having a concept behind the design strengthens it. The bottom two designs also utilized basic design principles better than the other designs such as proximity, repetition, and space.
The glass bottle I sketched at the top is similar to the final bottle. The main difference is it's slimmer with a taller neck. The taller shape looked cohesive with the pattern’s vertical stress.
Pattern Sketches
I combined my two label sketches to make three repeating patterns of abstracted morro, rice, and cacao plants and leaves. I focused on using curves and organic shapes to fill the negative space and give it a friendlier look.
Original Mockup
Reflection
Looking back with a more experienced mindset, I see issues with the logo design and hierarchy. Noticing these flaws means I have learned more about design. I better understood how to refine this project for a portfolio in the future. I learned how to make a logo and do packaging design for the first time. Although my bottle itself was not an “innovative solution” I created labels and had to think about text placement in conjunction with the logo and the pattern.
About a year later, I decided to go back and revise Venida's logo and tweak the patterns and label verbiage. Basically, the same concept just elevated.
Revision objectives:
1. Design a more unique and energetic logo tailored to the brand
2. Revise patterns to create a more organic and seamless flow
3. Revise verbiage on labels to establish better hierarchy.
More Sketches
My direction for the new logo was to think about the three brand words: authentic, refreshing, and welcoming. It's very common for Latinos to wave at people when they first see them. It’s a gesture meaning, "Come here quickly, so I can say hi." I thought to make the logo look like it's bouncing to mimic the energy and motion of a greeting and give it a more organic look to match the patterns.
Tweaking the Pattern
Revisions are not always major changes. I felt like the dark brown outline in the original pattern made the colors look colder and the shapes static. I removed the outline and tweaked the cacao pattern slightly to make certain elements repeat more frequently.
Color Choices: Morro is paired with blue in reference to Honduras' flag (blue and white), cacao has green to match the cacao plant's green leaves, and rice is paired with golden yellow to match the color of the stalk.
Old
New (Removed linework)
Adjusting the Verbiage
The biggest feedback I got from the first bottle was to change the wording on the smaller label. I was told people would read "morro seeds," "rice," and "cacao" first. The "dairy-free" line, in turn, would get overlooked, and consumers did not see that the beverage is horchata until they looked at the logo or tagline. The new label has the hierarchy structured so that the customer reads the horchata flavor first, that it is dairy-free second, and the "Honduran style horchata" is reiterated again underneith the logo.
Old
New