SARAH WOOL
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Voodoo Doughnut

CLIENT:
Voodoo Doughnut, a quirky doughnut shop based in Portland, Oregon. I’d love to work with Voodoo for real one day, but this is a just-for-fun project created during my time as a student at MICA.

ASK:
Choose an existing food vendor—broadly defined—and give it a rebrand.

I chose to rebrand Voodoo Doughnut for a few reasons: First, I like doughnuts (obviously). Second, I liked the idea of working with a circular food, like doughnuts or bagels. I wanted to use the food as a graphic element, so it made sense to choose something with a simple geometric shape. Third, the company’s current branding has an old school illustrative feel, and I wanted to see if I could give it a clean and graphic redesign. My goal was to refine the brand while maintaining the quirk and humor that made Voodoo famous in the first place.

PROCESS:
I started by researching similar brands—Georgetown Cupcake, Sprinkles, Blue Star Donuts, etc.—and asking questions. What sorts of visuals did these competitors use on their websites and in their branding? Did they stick to straightforward product pictures, or did they add complementary design elements? How did their user flows work? What was the information architecture on their websites? Who were their target customers? Was their branding geared toward these target customers, or was there a mismatch between branding and audience?

I also thought long and hard about what makes Voodoo Doughnut special. What is it about this doughnut shop that draws people? I decided that the most important elements of the brand are magic (voodoo) and quirkiness (experimentation and a penchant for doughnut oddities). With these two main elements in mind, I set to work creating moods and sketching out two possible routes for the rebranding. I also drew a lot of doughnuts. I really liked the idea of doughnut assortments—of crafting your own unique box of treats. I experimented with different ways to visualize that concept of assortment. After getting feedback from my peers and professor, I settled on a final direction for the rebrand.

SOLUTION:
The final rebrand puts the magic of doughnuts at center stage, using purple and yellow accents in a nod to New Orleans, where Mardi Gras and voodoo folklore shape the culture. The rebrand includes both desktop and mobile versions of the Voodoo website, as well as a user flow that allows for easy online orders. Illustrations are original and copy is a mix of existing and original.