Process
The owner of a new coffee company, A Happy Life, reached out to me about a logo for his brand. A part of the proceeds from every bag of coffee sold goes to help underprivileged farmers in developing countries, so it was important to communicate that positive aspect in the branding. My first round of concepts focused on a yin yang balance, coffee beans, leaves, and coffee mugs. You can see the beginnings of the “smiling mug” concept that he eventually picked.
The client wanted the option to use the wordmark without a logo, so it was important to explore options that did not rely on something iconographic. Here is where I started to toy with adding a character into the typeface, or a smile underneath the letters. I continued to develop the other concepts, and landed on the solution that the client picked, with the “smiling mug” and a wordpark that mimics the same smile gesture.