SELECTED WORK / 04

Yami Café

Yami Cafe is a playful café identity rooted in warmth and everyday ritual. The project explores how character-driven typography and simple visual systems can build a cohesive brand experience across physical and digital touchpoints.

ROLE: Brand & graphic designer
TOOL: Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop,
Rhino 8
TEAM: Jinjiu Gu, Linlin Yu, Natalie Wang
TIME: 5 weeks · Nov 2024

01 / THE IDEA

The Concept

The name “Yami” draws from the warmth and grounding qualities of the yam — a humble ingredient associated with comfort and nourishment. The identity reflects this through rounded forms, earthy tones, and friendly typography. The goal was to create a brand that feels approachable, playful, and rooted in comfort.

02 / VISUAL IDENTITY

A shape to
remember.

The custom wordmark brings a sliced-yam form into the lettering. Its soft proportions carry through the stickers and product labels, giving the system a recognizable voice beyond the café sign.

Logo Design

The letter “a” brings the shape of a sliced yam into the wordmark, connecting the typography to the brand symbol.

Color Palette

Six Yami Café palette colors: charcoal, cream, peach, apricot, orange, and dark brown

Brand Mark

Three illustrated Yami Café product labels for salad, sandwich, and latte

Signature Sandwich label being placed on wrapped food beside a fresh salad — Product labels / The yam silhouette frames everyday favorites.

03 / IN USE

Across touchpoints.

From the plate to the takeaway pack, the identity changes scale without losing its warmth. These three applications bring the system into the moments people actually touch.

Yami Café branded food container — 01 / TAKEAWAY PACKAGING

Yami Café branded coffee cup — 02 / COFFEE SLEEVE

Yami Café branded ceramic plate — 03 / TABLEWARE

04 / THE SPACE

Imagining the
space.

I modeled a possible café interior in Rhino 8 from our layout sketches. The visualization brings the menus, materials, and brand graphics together as one imagined customer experience.

Yami Café concept interior with seating, a service counter, and branded menus

Second view of the Yami Café concept interior, showing the café seating and display counter — CONCEPT INTERIOR / SEATING AND DISPLAY

A FINAL THOUGHT

A little warmth
goes a long way.

Yami Café gave us a chance to turn one simple ingredient into a flexible visual language. The strongest moments are the small ones: a rounded letter, a familiar color, and a mark that still feels like itself at every scale.