Overview
In today’s competitive market, emerging brands need a strong identity and strategic direction to stand out. As part of a collaborative project in my Advanced Visual Communications course, my team and I developed Sugar Rush, a brand built from the ground up. This semester-long initiative involved creating a comprehensive brand identity, brand guidelines, and a marketing strategy to support a new business concept. My contributions focused on design consistency, print assets layout, brand guidelines, unconventional marketing and social posts, ensuring a cohesive and impactful brand presence across both digital and print media.
My Role
As Lead Creative & Graphic Designer, I focused on:
• Compiling and refining brand assets.
• Creating a cohesive brand guideline.
• Using brand assets effectively within a multitude of different channels.
• Leading feedback sessions amongst the group and providing support where needed.
• Campaign Ideation and planning, aligned with our demographics needs.
Tools Used
• OneDrive - Storing documents and working files to work collaboratively.
• Illustrator – Logo and branding elements, reusable brand assets like patterns, symbols and social posts.
• InDesign – Brand style guide, Presentation design, and report templates.
• Trello – Task tracking and iterative design workflow.
• Figjam - Planning, empathy mapping and mind mapping.
Team Planning, Empathy Map & Mind Map
Research & Process
Our design process was feedback-driven and involved:
• Collaborative Branding Process – We collectively ideated on brand elements including the colour palette, brand symbols, and name. Each team member contributed ideas, which we then combined and refined together.
• Project Planning & Workflow – I created a planning document in FigJam to outline resource allocation, group roles, iterative workflows, and necessary digital tools.
• Brand Guideline Development – Once the logo, colours, and typography were finalized, we expanded our branding discussions. I created a comprehensive brand guideline to ensure consistency across all future designs.
• Strategic Branding & Audience Research – We planned our brand guidelines, initiative goals, and target audience approach, using personas, empathy maps, and mind maps to refine our strategy.
• Asset Creation & Marketing Execution – From our brand foundation, we developed assets across multiple formats. I designed print materials, social media posts, outdoor signage, and unconventional marketing through plantable seed packets.
Key Features
• Sugar Rush branding and style guide.
• Marketing campaign documents and document template.
• The Suger Rush Initiative for their new 100% recyclable packaging, empathising with their users wants and needs for more sustainable and transparent marketing.
• Print Assets – Bookmark design, informational handout, initiative mail insert.
• Digital Assets – Social posts with mockups.
• Unconventional marketing – Plantable seed packets
Potential Iterations/Features
• Landing Page Prototype – The digital assets could be extended, creating a landing page prototype could add to the overall branding and give more depth to the overall marketing initiative.
• Animated Elements – For a fun, interactive brand like Sugar Rush, utilising motion graphics on digital assets could be beneficial and appealing to their target audience.
Challenges & Lessons Learned
Challenges:
• Consistency Across Assets – With multiple team members contributing to assets, we held consistent check-ins to ensure brand and campaign alignment. This strengthened my communication skills and reinforced the importance of a structured feedback loop.
• Time Crunch – As this was a large-scale project, maintaining consistent updates and effective use of Trello was crucial. Since I had set up the Trello board early on, we were able to stay on track and meet deliverables efficiently.
Lessons Learned:
• Narrowing in Earlier – Identifying key design elements earlier would have streamlined branding decisions and allowed us to leverage target audience research more effectively.
• Timeline & Planning – Managing multiple projects sharpened my ability to schedule, prioritize, and execute tasks efficiently under tight deadlines.
Final Outcome & Impact
This project resulted in a cohesive brand identity and a fully developed marketing campaign, ensuring a consistent, engaging, and strategic brand presence across all deliverables.
• Consistent Branding – Established a refined visual identity, including a logo, colour palette, typography, and UI components, ensuring brand cohesion.
• Comprehensive Brand Style Guide – Created a detailed guideline outlining voice & tone, typography, colour palette, and imagery, providing a framework for future brand assets.
• Marketing & Communications Campaign – Developed strategic campaign messaging and promotional materials to support Sugar Rush’s 100% recyclable packaging initiative, aligning with consumer values and market demands.
Brand Guidelines
