Ginja
Beer
About Project
Ginja
Ginger Beer Product Branding
Project Overview
What makes an advertising campaign great? It catches your attention, makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you feel something or think, makes you want to buy/try the product. Create a branded ginger beer product using illustration, color, typography to achieve a luxury drink brand that could be in upscale grocery stores.
About Ginja
During Summer of 2020 a-lot of social injustices were happening to the black community. As an African American I struggled with my emotions and wondered how I could contribute to the conversation that was happening. I myself am on a journey to learning about my culture African American and Jamaican and wanted to put being black on blast that summer. With that being said when we were assigned to make a drink packaging I thought BLACK. I wanted a drink that had a high end (black girl luxury goals) and looked appetizing. At the time I was learning a few Jamaican recipes so ginger beer ringed loud in my head.
Ginja is a brand of love, peace, and luxury.
Discovery
I took to Pinterest since I was extremely inspired. At the time I didn't have a name yet but I knew I wanted the colors to be rich. I wanted a luxurious feel to this spicy drink. I wanted it to dominate the Whole Food shelves. I was Inspired by Island Illustration painting and fruits native to Jamaica.
Sketches
Coming up with a brand name was a struggle for me. In class they push you to design without having brand names. I was two classes behind because I was having a major creative block. Maybe because of what was happening in the states I needed a genuine connection to the project and I felt a name, THE name set the tone for what I was creating. I played around with names (intentionally) for 3 days. I was in Mississippi at the time and bounced some ideas off my Dad. He always let me know if they were good or not. I played between the name Irie which means "everything's good", and Ginja a play on words of Ginger. I was grounded enough to move forward with some logo sketches and can designs. In my head I wanted a slim can like an energy drink.
Logo
After a class critique of my sketches and logo ideas. Everyone gravitated towards the naming "Ginja". I felt at peace about it so I proceeded in making a logo mockup to get started on the beverage branding. I went with letter forms that reminded me of machetes used to cut sugar cane, coconuts, mangos , basically any item you can get your hands on in Jamaica.
Round 1
Round 2
After a final round critique I switched up my flavor banner to gold for a more luxury look.
The Final Design
Whats Next?
I love my Ginja ginger beer brand that I created. I feel that I have started to see where I can contribute as an African American in the design community. I can design products that represent Us. In the future I hope I can design more products and interfaces that showcase the black community.
As far as Ginja goes, what's next for me is creating a case for the design and a campaign. Stay tuned for updates.
