So for Phase 1 of this project, I really had to nail down the strategy before I could even think about the fun design stuff.
For this phase, I relied heavily on the Golden Circle framework. I was basically figuring out the Why, How, and What for these two brands because they are total opposites. First up is Apex, which is my Lemon Cyberpunk energy drink. The Why here was all about sparking curiosity and giving people that high energy, futuristic vibe with a cool ass mascot
I wanted to target people who think normal lemon drinks are boring lol, so the How was creating a soft taste citrus profile and using a chaotic, neon Y2K aesthetic to cause some visual disruption. Then there is Vessel, which is basically the clean girl of beverages. It’s a premium, zero additive fruit drink that’s all about purity and Precision Engineering.
For Vessel, I went with an aesthetic scientific look, even using an Element Table system for the flavors like Pg or Sb, Bn, Pr… (Pomegranate, Strawberry, Banana, Pear..) because it makes the consumer feel like a body optimizer who actually knows what they’re drinking. To get the visual direction right, I put together two completely different moodboards. I made one that is all Neon Shadows and tech heavy for Apex, and one that is clinical and minimalist for Vessel.
I also had to look into the actual Dutch market stuff, like the sugar tax increase and the statiegeld rules, to make sure my babies could actually survive in a real store but seems like only one could 💀
I finished the phase by creating the first logo iterations in black and white for both brands, making sure they looked just as good on a screen as they would on a can or a bottle. It was a lot of work to jump between these two different worlds, but it really set the stage for the design phase and made sure I wasn’t just making things look pretty without a reason.