objective.

Komodo Kava House was Charlotte’s first kava bar and lounge. Kava bars have been done in North Carolina before in places like Asheville (of course, Asheville), but Charlotte had never seen one before and our team was looking to fill that niche void.

The goal was to create an impactful brand that signified what kava is and to serve as a well-established introduction to the Charlotte market.

solution.

The name itself was proposed by yours truly. I did some research on the origins of kava, its geographical significance, the process of making it, etc., and found that it originated in the South Pacific. I found that komodo dragons are indigenous to a ballpark region decided to use it as a basis for the brand.

From that foundation, I built a strong, respectable mark that included a cheeky forked tongue that cleverly divided the subheading text. The tongue would later serve as a motif for future graphic ideas.

The final brand design was clean and suave while not envoking too much of a luxury vibe. Being straightforward with a bit of a twist perfectly reflected Komodo’s ideals.

print.

Here is the printed menu that was made for the bar. I’ve had extensive experience with digital menu design in the past, but not very much in the way of printed ones. There was a good amount of content that needed to be presented and I gave myself the restriction of having it be single-sided, leading to a slightly bigger challenge.

The self-imposed single-sided thing was due to an idea I had in regards to how the menu would be presented. I didn’t want them to be loosely lying around - I wanted them bound to something substantial, like a board, but in a slightly refined way. They had to be easily removable in case the menus themselves became cruddy or needed updating. The final execution was a simple wooden board, stained dark, with elastic bands pinned in placed by brass push-pins. They were easy as hell to make, super cheap, and we could easily slip menus in and out of them as needed.

The next image is a compilation of a bunch of printed marketing stuff. Business cards, coupons, punch cards, stickers, etc. I think the thing I’m most proud of in regards to the branding is how bold, yet clean and structured everything is. Yellow is obviously a very alerting color, and I wanted that initial “alertness” to be met with an ease of readability and flow. It could’ve easily become a mess of what-to-look-at-first, but I made sure to exercise proper hierarchies to avoid that kind of thing.

I’m also super proud of the front of the punch card design (the thing that looks like a lizard head). The teeth/mouth is made up of the letters “KKH” and was actually a logo variant I proposed back in the initial stages of brand development. I ended up sneaking it in this little printed piece instead.

digital media.

For what it’s worth, it was around this time that I was going through a certain phase. I was following a lot of those social-media-mogul types on Instagram. You probably know what I’m talking about. They gain a huge following by showing other folks how to gain a huge following. “Use large, captivating type in your post”, “hierarchy matters”, etc. You know, basic design stuff the average Joe wouldn’t be aware of. And of course, carousels carousels carousels.

I think they definitely made for a more dynamic presentation. It was a fun exercise in creating interesting little ways to get a viewer to scroll to the next image. A small dot, a portion of another image in the corner. I learned to play with the subtleties of perception and, maybe, a tiny bit of UX.

I also worked up a digital version of our menu, for visitors who chose to sit at the bar. There were mounted TVs on the back wall behind the counter where we would display the latest promos and product. A supplementary menu was displayed in the event of physical menus not being immediately available, be it not having enough printer ink, paper, or what-have-you.

I try to cover as many bases like this as I can. Backup plans can be real lifesavers sometimes.