NYC Deal 99 Cent Store Brand Identity

Press Kit

Unique Properties

NYC Deal is a local 99 cents store in New York City. To rebrand this store, it is important to let people grasp the most distinctive attraction of the store, that everything is only priced at 99 cents. With this design, no one can ignore the bold and striking price tag. Moreover, the designer carefully captured the inviting dangling movement to the drive to stimulate potential customers to grab a hold of the moving price tag themselves.

Dimensions & Packaging

The identity system will be used on various sizes, materials, platforms, which will not have a specific dimension.

Tags

Branding, Graphic Design, Identity, Logo, Poster

Production Technology

For the packages and stationaries of the brand, digital laser printing will be used on various related productions. For the tote bags, shirts, and any other products that will be printed on fabrics will use screen printing to make the inks durable.

Design Challenge

The challenge was to design a clear but powerful logo for the brand. The logo should be able to grab ahold of eyeballs of pedestrians and inform them about the main attraction of the store. This was the problem he sought out to solve at the first place. In the process of designing, the designer also struggled to grapple with the existing design at hand and avoided being limited by it. Hence, he spent a lot of effort into balancing his own creative process while maintaining the original identity. The logo should, of course, be different, but people should also still be able to identify the brand from past experience.

Project Duration

The project started in November 2018 at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and was finished in April 2019.

Operation Flow

The inspiration of the designer mostly comes from his careful observation of the surrounding environment in New York City. The designer has noticed how 99 cent stores can truly come handy when the budget is tight. As a result, he sought to improve the logo so people can understand its main feature more intuitively. First, he created the mood board by using the photos from the street to start sketching. After about fifty different trials, he finally decided on this distinctive and simple logo to grab attention from customers.

Research

The type of research was conducted based on marketing and branding. The objective of the design is to make the brand more recognizable from other similar shops. Through competitor analysis, user research, and brand positioning strategy, the designer recognized that this kind of value shops make profits by selling bulks of products, instead of specialized sophisticated single items. Hence, it is critical for the brand to capture the attention of customers through branding. As a result, the logo was created to invite customers in with its dangling movement and simple statement, 99 cents.

Inspiration

The angle of the symbol was inspired by the dangling price tag. When customers try to see the price of an item, they usually need to reach for the dancing price tag and pause it for the read. The design captured this movement as the main feature of the logo, encapsulating the shopping experience in one graphic. As for supporting elements, some features of the products in the shops are included.

Colors of NYC Deal 99 Cent Store Brand Identity