The Dumpling Hut
The Dumpling Hut was a challenge for me in my last semester at UCF, to create an innovative branding project based on my interests. It is a newly opened mobile food truck that provides fresh, authentic dumplings to Florida visitors and nearby residents. For those who have never tasted dumplings, they use fresh ingredients as fillings and then boil them in soup or steam. Dumplings can be made quickly and are a healthy way to eat. Even if you’re a vegetarian, don’t worry because dumplings have a variety of vegetable ingredients to choose from.
Initially, I wanted to use hand-lettering to inject some freshness into the brand. I want people to think of it as a friendly and relaxed street food, both for their neighbors and for tourists in Florida.
After exploring drafts on my iPad for a while I found a font called Pacifico that fit the style I was looking for. I stacked the font to make the outline and edge look like a dumpling, then stretched out the two letters i & t to make it look like a pair of chopsticks were about to pick up the dumpling icon in the top right corner.
For the colors, I extracted them from a dumpling photo. The Yellow comes from the dumpling itself more bright and harmonious, it conveys a cheerful and active atmosphere. The Green comes from the dumpling filling, it is a healthy color with a bit of a sour feeling. But guess what dumplings go best with? That is the soy sauce, which is the Brown color of the stroke. At last with a finishing touch of the Red color as a garnish, it livens up the whole palette.
Roles: Entrepreneurial Thinking, Project Ideation, Packaging Design, Illustration, Hand Lettering, Branding.
