On March 17, 2022, 7 Leaves Café in Orange County launched Green Thai Tea, their first new special drink in almost two years. To celebrate the drink's cultural roots, 7 Leaves collaborated with the Thailand Tourism Authority and offered a trip to Thailand as a contest prize.
I designed the spotlight campaign to capture Thailand's vibrant culture using symbols, warm lighting, and traditional items. I art directed the product photoshoot to create hero images for the campaign. The campaign was a success, and the Green Thai Tea outsold 7 Leaves' usual bestseller, House Coffee, in its first week on the menu!
Marketing Director, 7 Leaves: Newton Hoang
Brand Director, 7 Leaves: Jack Zhong
Lead Designer and Art Director: Jenn Chow Tran
Photographer: Chenni Wen Brody
7 Leaves Cafe
Green Thai Tea
Scope
Art Direction
Print Design
Branding
Client
7 Leaves Cafe
Role
Lead Designer and Art Director
PROCESS
CONCEPT: TRADITIONAL & MODERN
BRINGING TOGETHER THE FAMILIAR AND THE NEW
We borrowed cultural Thai heirlooms and Vietnamese woven rattan to create the backdrops for our photoshoot.
DESIGN - ROUND ONE
At first, we explored making the headline “Green Thai Tea” in traditional Thai characters to add an air of intrigue. I explored different Thai fonts and colored them with gradients to resemble the appearance of the drink. We found this challenged the legibility and opted for “Green Thai Tea'“ in English as the main title and it's Thai translation as an accent title. I incorporated Thai symbols and patterns in the graphics.
Now that we had clear messaging, I added more symbolism to allude to the culture of Thailand. The team loved both the warmth of the rattan background and the contrast of the cool slate gray background, so we ended up using both options in different pieces. The gray backdrop was used in applications where clear legibility was of utmost importance. For example, outdoor banners over the cafe entrances that viewers drive by quickly.
DESIGN - ROUND TWO
The Final Campaign
The Green Thai Tea Campaign extended to dozens of deliverables. Every time a new 7 Leaves location opens, it takes over the existing architecture of the previous tenant. This results in a multitude of deliverables to fit in a variety of on-site placements such as window clings, real estate signs, drive through panels, table cards, horizontal banners, and posters.
The campaign was a success, and the Green Thai Tea outsold 7 Leaves' usual bestseller, House Coffee, in its first week on the menu! This was the first time another drink has surpassed the signature House Coffee in sales.
