Young Tea Background
My parents started Young Tea in 2015. Over the years, I’ve become more and more involved in the family business as it grew, and when we realized that we had the potential to expand from just a small local family tea shop to a brand, I took on a large part of the design and marketing related duties.
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to work on all aspects of design related to Young Tea. From big picture branding and identity design to little one-off posters displayed in stores, I’ve tackled a variety of challenges that has made me a stronger visual designer throughout the years.
Presented below is a short overview of my biggest projects.
2019
Digital Poster Designs
There was a system of three TV’s meant to display promotional content and posters in the store. In the summer of 2019, I created digital posters to suit a variety of needs, from promotional content to simple decor that would hopefully somewhat alter the atmosphere of the interior space depending on the display.
Below are a selection of posters that are currently running at the Wallingford Location.
2021
Cup Design
Late Winter 2021, we decided that it was about time we refreshed our old cup design to match the current branding and identity of Young Tea. This also coincided with a desire to use a different kind of cup with stronger materials and a slimmer form factor, as the previous cup was somewhat stout and unwieldy.
I wanted to reflect the attention we put into our products by using the names of our drinks as a band wrapping around the cup as a visual element. The central element with the logo and name highlight the slimmer proportions of the cup and serve as a central focal point for customers to take pictures (and furthe our social media presence).
The cup design went through several iterations and prototypes, as you can see below.
2021
Tea Tasting Menu Design
The Wallingford Location presented the opportunity to start doing private tea-tasting events, where groups of 2-6 can experience a unique and customized tasting menu of various authentic teas.
With this new experience, we thought it would be fitting to have a tasting menu to guide guests through the experience. The constraints were that it had to be printed on letter paper and feature information on the teas in the menu.
I created a template for the personalized menus and write the copy as the menu changes from event to event.
2022
Packaging Labels
As the business expanded and locations grew, we realized that selling tea leaves would become a larger part of the business. At our Wallingford location, we would finally have enough space to display and sell prepackaged tea leaves from local farmers in Taiwan.
Unfortunately, the company didn’t have the budget to create new packaging from the ground up for each type of tea. Instead, we’d have to create reusable label stickers to write details on.
This created an interesting constraint to work with, as the stickers had to fit every size of container and still have enough space to cover a wide array of bags.
We divided the teas up into five categories -- the other details would be hand written on, which is only feasible since we’re selling tea leaves at low volumes for now.
