PERSONAL STUDENT PROJECT 2023-2024
Branding  | Illustrator, Photoshop & InDesign


The Golden Coast

The Golden Coast is a start-up restaurant in Bethany Beach, DE, that serves breakfast and lunch. The Golden Coast is dog and allergen-friendly, encouraging customers to bring their pets to enjoy the outdoor seating area and providing a safe dining experience. *This a fictional company.

Inspiration

I have always wanted to open a small restaurant, so when I imagined this restaurant, I placed it in my favorite, quiet beach town and offered potential customers the same things I was looking for in a restaurant. As a dog lover, I wish I could take my dogs everywhere with me, so making this dog-friendly was a calculated choice since it would already offer outdoor seating area due to its location.


I have an allergy so it makes dining out difficult, but restaurants that offer allergy information and helpful accommodations always make an unforgettable experience, something I would love to give others someday. My goal was to start with a logo design, allergen menu, food menu, and dog menu. I wanted to focus on start-up features as well, like a printed flyer and a mobile event announcement on social media.

Ideation

I started by creating a mood board from Pinterest, showing images of Golden Retrievers, beach scenes, menus, and different color options. I then began mind mapping and sketching logos. I wanted this logo to give the illusion of a wave, connecting the restaurant's location, and creating a submark using the G and C from The Golden Coast’s name.

Final Logo

I chose typography that portrayed a professional and high-quality restaurant, and flowing letter connections, like the "e" and "a". Leaving out the typical playfulness associated with dogs from the logo design was a sacrifice to portray the restaurant as high quality, with dogs being a secondary benefit to the restaurant. The color palette consisted of a bold orange, deep red, light blue, and a tan to capture the well known beach appearance of a sunset and sun.

Menus

When sketching the menus, I chose a 3-fold menu, sectioning out items by breakfast, lunch, drinks, and desserts for the main food menu. Choosing a simple menu matched the simplistically of the logo, highlighting the quality of food and menu choices. Contrasting with regular food menu, I went with a much looser style to capture the playfulness of dogs for their specific menu.

Food Menu

Dog Menu

Allergen Menu

Event Ad


When creating the event flyer, I sketched several ideas, including various layouts, and image options, highlighting the dog-friendly features, etc. I also created a social media campaign post to highlight this event. If a company is advertising its opening, it needs to reach a wide audience, so I felt creating a social ad would benefit its marketing efforts.


The carousel Instagram post included the same information as the event flyer but focused on highlighting different content on each screen when swiping through. The first screen would show the opening date and the callout for the event, the next focused on the actual restaurant and what it offered, while the last screen focused on the dog-friendly feature and included the engraved dog bowl mentioned on the dog menu.

Presentation and Supporting Image Assets Designed by @rawpixel.com, @chandlervid85, @topntp26, @timolina, @aleksandr_samochernyi, @magnific / Magnific (www.magnific.com)