MANDATORY ASSIGNMENT 02 – LOGO

Rebecca Skogstad

In this assignment I am designing a logo to represent a new chocolate brand who is trying to

enter the market, called ”Crave”. The logo´s design have to be something that represents and

appeals to the target group. My target group is “Women in their 30´s”, so the logo is supposed

to represent something feminine, sensual and womanish. It´s known that women in general

loves all kinds of chocolate, but I have decided the product to be dark chocolate. Dark

chocolate is a popular product among women in their 30´s - maybe because it is “healthier”

than the lighter chocolates.

RESEARCH & WORK METHODS Chocolate characteristics

Chocolate is a typically sweet, light brown, dark brown or white food preparation of

theobroma cacao seeds, roasted and ground, often flavored, as with vanilla. It is made in the

form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, or used as a flavoring ingredient in other foods.

Chocolate´s history

The history of chocolate begins in Mesoamerica. Fermented chocolate, beverages dating back

to 1900 BC. It was the Aztecs, who believed that the cacao seeds were a gift from the god of

wisdom, Quetzalcoatl. The seed was used as a form of currency, because it has so much

value. Chocolate was originally prepared as a drink, served as a bitter, frothy liquid, mixed

with spices, wine or corn puree. The Aztecs believed it had aphrodisiac powers and gave the

drinker strength.

It was first after its arrival to Europe in the sixteenth century, sugar was added and it became

popular throughout society, first among the higher classes and then among the common

people. Now two-thirds of the world's cocoa is produced in Western Africa and every year

seven to nine times more cocoa is bought and sold on the exchange than exists.

Today, you find chocolate in all sorts of types, and Norwegians eat 9,7 kg chocolate each per

year.

Competitors

I have been researching and looking at the competitors design - Freia, Nidar and Anthon

Berg.

The Freia-logo actually looks a bit royal, and the audience is probably everyone. It could

appeal to kids/teenagers, as well as grown-ups and gives me kind of a nostalgic feeling, it may

even look like a candybar-logo from the 50´s. That may be to remind us that they have been

on the market for a long time, and still is. Often they have an additional logo for the specific

chocolates – these often has a more specific target group along with whole package design

and colors. The ”Oreo” and ”Boble” chocolates appeals more to kids/teenagers than the adult

ones, while ”Freia Premium” and ”Freia Mandelstang” has adults and older people as their

target group. Also, Freia often use typical Norwegian colors and themes that reminds of

Norwegian lifestyle.

The Nidar-logo is simple and timeless, it´s a logo that also would appeal to grown-ups as well

as kids/teenagers. Nidar also uses additional logos for the specific chocolates. The ”Nidar

Stratos” and ”Nidar Crispo” has more of a younger target group – kids and teenagers, while

”Nidar Bocca” and ”Nidar Café Bakeriet” has an older target group.

Anthon Berg has a classic, royal design for their logo. As far as I know, they don´t have a

younger target group. You can see they only use a few colors, the font is more complex, and

by using the byline ”Since 1884” the chocolate symbols exclusivity and a gives a more

”expensive” look. In their products they often have liquors and jelly etc., which is more often

eaten by adults and older people.

What makes the difference between the logos for the different target groups is the use of

colors, the font type and size. For the younger target groups they often use large, ”bubbly”

fonts and more colors, while for the older target groups the logo is often more simple and

clean, and often less colors. For younger target groups they also use symbols and figures that

appeals to them.

The “Crave” logo

I am designing a logo for a new chocolate brand called “Crave” who is trying to enter the

market. The target group is “Women in their 30´s”. My first thoughts were the words; women,

feminine, pink, love, sensual, luxurious, chocolate, dark chocolate, health. I created a

moodboard on Pinterest to show the typical feminine woman:

By combining these words and these pictures, I started to get an idea of what the logo will

look like, so I made some sketches that you see below.

Compared to the other brands on the market, the main competitor would be “Freia Premium”,

“Nidar Bocca” and similar chocolates. Their logos are sensual, classic and appeals to the same

target group as “Crave” will do. I want the “Crave” logo to be even more feminine and

sensual. I wanted the logo to contain a typical, womanish figure combined with a sensual,

feminine font. After getting my ideas on paper, I started working in Illustrator, and the logo

was created.

Sketches

I did some sketches, not too different from each other, because I had kind of already made up

my mind. I did ask for feedback both from friends, boyfriend and in Moodle.

The final result

I am quite happy with the final product, I think the logo appeals to the right target group, it is

simple, feminine and easy recognizable. Below you can see the logo in 1. CMYK, 2. RGB

and 3. GRAYSCALE.

DESIGN

By looking at the logo you can see that the font goes well with the icon, they are both clean,

simple and feminine, without any “noise”. It is easy recognizable and looks luxurious. The

icon is half a heart, so it belongs more to “Crave” which is kind of inside the heart. The heart

icon symbols love, and as hearts often are compared to what we love or what we like and

admires, most often used by women, I figured it was a proper icon to use with the logo. It

gives a feminine style right away.

The typestyle I have used for both “Crave” and “dark chocolate” is “Madre Script”, they are

all in “italic style” which makes the whole font more feminine. I made the “C” a little bigger

than “rave” so that the “C” dominates the logo along with the icon. The byline “dark

chocolate” was added to give a description of what “Crave” really is, since this is a new

product, so it is important that people knows what it is. I chose to use the same fonts for all

the words, so it gives us only one impression and doesn´t get messy - because of the different

sizes of the words, it doesn´t necessary look like the same font either and doesn´t look boring.

I have only used two colors - black and pink. The black color is #000000 and is chosen

because it is classy, simple and gives the logo a mysterious and feminine look – also since it

is a dark chocolate, it works well with the concept. For the icon, the heart, I have used a dark

pink color #D71D5E, because we often associate a heart with the colors red, and pink. Pink is

also the most feminine, womanish color of them all, and with a risk of making it childish, I

chose a little darker pink to go with the logo.

The logo now looks feminine, simple, classy, mysterious and the just the way I wanted it to

look. The logo now appeals to the right target group and I am quite happy with it.

References:

Chocolate characteristics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate

History of chocolate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chocolate

Chocolate facts http://www.dagbladet.no/2015/01/22/tema/helse/kosthold/37319646/

Moodboard https://no.pinterest.com/rebeccaskogstad/crave-logo/

Graphic Design School – The Principles and Practice of Graphic Design 5th edition, David

Dabner, Sandra Stewart, Eric Zempol, Quarto Publishing plc, 2014.