Project

Create a total branding for nonexistent brand with promising ideas.

How it came to be

We will take a look at the inception of one of our favorite brands, namely CAPAURA. Collaboration between brand's founder Jason and Mariya Design's leading expert Mariya started back in 2021. Jason was looking for someone skillful, experienced and modern to help shape and visually represent a great idea of his. The concept revealed a special, sustainably made personalized cap that cools wearer's head. Yes, as you may guess, we were immediately interested in this product, as we imagined its potential to revolutionize headwear fashion.

Briefing

We began our correspondence, pinning down the ideas, needs and expectations of Jason and discussing how to best fulfill everything in a timely manner.

Once confided we are the right people for his job, Jason sent us a deposit. He filled a questionnaire, from which we extracted valuable insight in order to begin our craft.

The name “CAPAURA” did not exist back then. We proposed naming variants and with slight wiggle the name came to be as if it was first and the idea built around it.

While CAPAURA’s cool cap has a primary role to cater to professionals, it is not limited to only accommodating them. Sport fans all over the world, attending live events in hot and sunny weather, are to benefit from this innovative tech-fashionwear. We kept that in mind.

Creation phase

Visual identity

Logo discovery – work here began by forming a monochome logo in several variants. Jason received three separate boards containing original logo designs. He was going after a clover stylization, so we delivered specifically in that direction.

Our logo concept was built around the idea to merge the infinity sign with a clover interpretation. We tested few designs in-house and presented what felt to be the best.

Jason loved these three variants right away. He asked to see a version where the font of v1 and v2 is combined with the symbol of v3. Of course, we delivered in due time.

CAPAURA’s monochrome logo was getting there, but we felt there’s still room for improvement. Mariya decided to try distal thinning and voila, hit the bullseye!

Jason was very happy with the last version, so he approved it to be the final design of the monochrome logo. This is the one you will see publicly and hopefully very often, once the innovative cap becomes available and deservingly popular.

Once the monochrome logo was completed, our work with Jason continued by preparing a colorful logo variant. It goes beyond that though. It was time to select a colour palette that will be representative of the brand and reflect its values, positioning, products, while corresponding with the expected target audience.We prepared three new boards, taking into account Jason‘s know-how and utilizing all the information regarding CAPAURA that we extracted from our questionnaire and conversations. Probably everyone understands that brand colours are not picked up at random. They are based on general colour symbolism among other factors. Typography is also worked upon at this stage and it has to nicely concur to the palette.

Jason was somewhat divided between v.1 and v.2. CAPAURA was aiming at „passionate, cheerful and energizing” nonverbal message. We knew which colours could best represent that, thus we suggested to stick with v.1. Of course, Jason had the option to ask for specific colours to be added or removed. He was completely happy with the progress at that stage and did not wish to make any changes to the palette. So he validated v.1 without revisions and we moved on.

Palette colours always have to match each other, must be readable and exciting, should establish the brand in the desired way and eventually become its association at first sight.

It is understandable that logo completion time depends on client’s response time and the amount of requested revisions. In fact, this applies to every stage of the Creation phase. There are cases when clients are happy to pick one of the initial designs without any revisions, such as the abovementioned case. In other circumstances, one or two rounds of revisions are requested, which stretches the completion time a bit. For CAPAURA, Jason was very responsive and reasonable. He gave us very good insight about his brand and requirements, thus we gained solid understanding of where our potential design should go. It is no surprise his logo was shaped up very fast. Still, every project demands its own and we are always aiming to create the best possible design that the client will love, even if it takes us more time and efforts.

Typography – as we explained above, it was being worked upon rather simultaneously together with the colour palette. When creating a visual identity, you can’t simply pick some random elements and “slap” them together for a result. Well, someone might do just that and call it a day, but we at Mariya Design Studio think differently. So our efforts in typography aspect were to offer Jason a legible and elegant font with relevant ruleset, one which would visually enhance his brand and its related materials.

Proposed fonts from top to bottom were Oswald+Kartika, Raleway+Roboto, Montserrat+Roboto. Jason selected the third variant and we were happy with his choice.

Once the typography was completed, we moved on to finalize CAPAURA‘s visual identity by demonstrating how stationery, social media, web page, photography and related brand materials have to appear and be represented in a digital environment.

We suggested landscape orientation for the brand book. Such format fits pretty well both when viewed on a desktop monitor and if printed on paper as a real book.

Understandably, before project or phase completion, the client has the opportunity to review and amend if something is not quite as they wish it to be. This was our second project with Jason. Since we already had a considerable understanding of his brand and perception and he recognized us as professionals, we were able to reach the desired results very swiftly. Jason confirmed everything is as requested and delivery files package was sent to him once the agreed payment was received on our part.

Delivery form

Here is what Jason received. Keep in mind the list beneath includes files whose development is not explained above. We will share the experience of completing the total brand identity in the intended Part 2 of our CAPAURA case study.

• Brand book in PDF: 58 original content pages; print-ready format, preview files.

• Tailored logo design in: AI, TIFF, JPG, PNG, EPS, PDF, SVG; for print and web.

• Stationery and supporting digital materials; for print and web.

• Related fonts and several bespoke presentation mockups.

After the visual identity was finished, Jason relied on our competence and good judgement to complete the rest of the brand identity at once, without his immediate input. To hint even further, subsequently we created a fully tailored website design for CAPAURA, but let’s not disclose everything at once.

The magic of branding

Below is an example of proper branding. The images underneath are not made by Mariya Design Studio. A company developing the CAPAURA prototype used the brand guidelines that we created to visually represent their work at a further stage. We have to admit they did a wonderful job.

We haven’t exchanged a single email, but that style looks quite familiar, right? This is the magic of brand books! Once your brand has a book that is relatively well developed, any shareholder or contractor with authorization and decent skills could extract necessary information and represent the brand by keeping to its ruleset and principles. There is no need for additional resources and specialists to take constant care of the visuals and messages. If they adhere to the brand book, the results should always be satisfactory.

Thank you for staying with us thus far! We will surely continue to tell the story of CAPAURA. In the meantime, you know where to find us for your design-related need. See you soon and good luck!