ROOST

an original concept of a one-stop shop for happy backyard hen ownership

BRANDING | MOTION | WEB DESIGN

Problem:  More and more people are concerned with understanding where their food comes from and how it reaches their table. One solution for urban dwellers is to adopt backyard chickens that double not only as egg-providers but also as friendly pets. 

Challenge:  Seeing the growing demand for backyard hens in the Seattle area, come up with a way to facilitate the process of getting hens and make hen ownership pleasant and burden-free.

Solution:  We set out to create a branded company that would address main concerns surrounding hen ownership and make getting hens and taking care of them nothing but enjoyable experience. We tackled the main challenges associated with backyard hen ownership and created a brand that conveys its ease and excitement.

My role:  Research, concept, branding, motion graphics, web design and development,  e-commerse website, user experience, typography and layout, packaging, pattern creation, environmental design 

Tools: Illustrator, AfterEffects, Indesign, Dreamweaver, HTML & CSS, WordPress, Environmental Graphics

Timeline: 3 quarters

Collaborators: Hannah Riley

How we thought of Roost: In the fall of 2015, after seeing the growing demand for backyard hens in the Seattle area, an idea to develop a company that would address this growing need was born. Over the course of the following three quarters, animal-enthusiasts Hannah and I set out to create a branded company that would help facilitate the process of getting hens and making hen ownership a pleasant, burden-free experience. Roost, as we have named the company, focuses on urban dwellers who are looking for that farm experience in their own backyard, minus the mess. What began as a small school branding project quickly grew into a potential, full-fledged startup company.

In order to come up with a viable business solution and later on an effective brand, we did a great amount of research on backyard hen ownership, our competitors on the market and, most importantly, our potential users.

We created a short AfterEffects promo video that would familiarize customers with our  business and direct them to our website. Light-hearted music, fun friendly illustrations, and casual copy convey how easy and exciting it is to become a proud chicken owner with Roost.

Audience and tone of voice: Roost focuses on urban couples and families with kids who are looking for that farm experience in their own backyard, minus the mess. This guided our design decision throughout the whole project. 

Simple illustrations, a playful  color palette, as well as a friendly geometric Avenir typeface help established an approachable and welcoming tone for the brand and share the company’s excitement about the backyard hens with their customers.

Responsive E-commerce website: Roost website is a cornerstone of Roost business. It's more than a selling mechanism. It’s an informational hub for all the chicken lovers as well as a place to get inspired to become a proud hen owner. We hand-coded Roost website with its users and their needs in mind, grounding our decisions on surveys and user testing. Please see the details of the website creation in the Process Section.

Marketing: Because the business would not operate out of a brick and mortar front, establishing a touchpoint between the company and the customers was key. An important aspect of our business was to create a marketing strategy to introduce our business and familiarize the customers with our brand and services. As a solution, we created a pop-up shop that would house informational pieces such as posters, brochures, our website, and video. We also included fun takeaways such as buttons, postcards, and other merchandise to help spread our brand.

PROCESS

Roost customers: A significant step in developing Roost brand identity was figuring out its users. Roost’s customers are city dwellers and homeowners, 60% of them have kids. Most of them are fully-employed and have higher education. They are involved in recycling and composting, as well as home gardening and food preserving. They have a concern for health and diet and pay a lot of attention to home meals preparation. A lot of them pay attention to the origin of the food on their table and spend time educating their kids about their food choices.

Coming up with the business model: In order to come up with a viable business solution and later on effective brand, we needed to look into the matter – chickens. Neither of us had had any experience of owning backyard hens, so we had to do some fundamental research. We focused on studying competitors and potential audience. We also created an open Typeform survey asking current hen owners of the challenges and advantages of having hens. Once we got the data, we focused on addressing the existing pain points and making chicken ownership attractive for busy city-dwellers. 

Brand style: Figuring out our audience marked a starting point for Roost branding. We went through a brand deck exercise to define the brand characteristics of Roost company. Eventually, we narrowed them down to such adjectives as convenient, friendly, nested, and family-oriented.

We made sure these brand attributes are clearly reflected in our logo, styleguide and illustrations. For the logo wordmark, we adapted Architect’s Daughter typeface and substituted double ‘o’ in the middle with two eggs. This way Roost combination marks became universal and can be used both as a wordmark and/or combination mark that includes the chicken itself.

Due to the friendly and family-oriented nature of Roost, we thought of illustrations as the best way to convey its approachability and simplicity. For this purpose, we intentionally used uneven strokes and careless paint filling on all of Roost illustrations. Together with a playful color palette and friendly sans serif Avenir typeface, they help establish an approachable and welcoming tone for the brand and share the company’s excitement about the backyard hens with their customers.

Process behind the website: The research process and the results of Typeform survey drove most of our decisions for Roost website functionality. We knew we wanted the website to be a selling point and a marketing piece, but we also wanted it to become an information hub on backyard hen ownership and a source of inspiration for Roost potential customers.

When designing the website, we prioritised functionality and clarity. In order to make sure the website is easy to navigate, we went through open card sort exercise, which helped us establish a clear hierarchy of information and establish an easy to navigate site structure. We also went through a round of wireframing and user testing to make sure our design choices met our users’ expectations and needs.

Visually, we intended the website to be cohesive with the rest of Roost brand. We introduced subtle playful illustrative dividers and borders and used a friendly typeface to convey the approachable character established by Roost guidelines.