(All graphics and assets designed by me in Figma.)
CLIENT
POM POM is a vegetarian restaurant in Philadelphia. I was hired to build their website, generate their marketing copy, and design all their brand assets. I also named the restaurant.
ROLE: UX Design, UX Research Graphic Design, UX Writing, Content Design, Content Strategy, Brand Development, Brand Design, Copywriting.
SCOPE: Persona Creation, Web Design, Journey Mapping, Content Creation, A/B Testing, Design System.
DURATION: 4 Weeks
User Research
More Americans eat meat now than ever before. Over the past 50 years, we’ve added an additional 20lb annually to our diets. But the percentage of vegetarians has remained static—around 5% of the population.
According to a 2019 Gallup poll, 67% of respondents frequently eat meat as part of their ordinary diet. According to that same poll, about a quarter of respondents are making a conscious effort to eat less meat. These respondents are concerned about their health, about the environment, about animal cruelty, about the quality of the products they find in the grocery store.
I interviewed 10 people—5 vegetarians, 5 non-vegetarians—to get a sense of what Pom Pom’s brand needed to be. From those interviews I developed two personas, and two journey maps.
PERSONAS
JOURNEY MAPS
Comparative Analysis
BLACKBIRD PIZZERIA
HIPCITYVEG
There are two basic aesthetics present in the city’s vegetarian restaurants: punk, and health.
The punk aesthetic is Blackbird all the way. It’s black, minimal, intentionally awkward. The point of the punk aesthetic is to appeal to socially conscious consumers. The aesthetic’s spartan simplicity is meant to signal the brand’s ethics.
The health aesthetic is all HipCityVeg. The design’s clean, airy feel is meant to invoke a sense of calm, of purity. The splash image of fries and fritters is saturated almost to the point of radiance. This aesthetic is meant to appeal to the health conscious, and the lifestyle obsessed.
POM POM’s AESTHETIC
POM POM splits the difference. Most people are neither ethical absolutists—certainly not when eating—nor lifestyle obsessed.
Ideation
Brand Voice
Based upon my interviews with omnivores and vegetarians, I learned that both wanted to feel welcome at their restaurants of choice. The omnivores wanted to avoid judgment, while the vegetarians wanted to eat with their families. As such, I decided to craft POM POM’s voice into something warm, simple, and welcoming.
Brand Image
Ditto the image. I wanted to create something fun, but also simple and welcoming. I wanted the aesthetic to feel open to all.
TAGLINE
The restaurant’s owner provided me with a short tagline he’d written: “POM POM is a counter-service cafe in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia serving vegetarian comfort food.”
There are a number of problems with this sentence. The main one being it’s a description. It doesn’t draw the users in. So we developed a little design studio, and iterated:
“Try the rest, or, uh… us; After a decade in Fishtown, we saw a lack of vegetarian spots; We created this because we live here, and this is what we want to eat; Vegetarian-American food; Burgers, melts, chili, mac — craveable; Casual food. This is the food we love, and the food we serve; Nothing’s too obscure; We love vegetarian cuisine; Veggies aren’t boring; Vegetarian food is a center of the plate thing; Vegetarian food is more than just salad; Even your dad who refuses to eat broccoli will love us; Comforting, craveable, casual; Vegetarian food for everybody; Vegetarianism is the future; hypoallergenic, vegan; inviting, casual; neighborhoody; DIY, small business.”
We ended up with:
This tagline was simple, immediate, warm, and welcoming—a tagline that included “everybody.”
DESIGN SYSTEM
The design atoms, fonts, and colors were all based on the same two ideas:
Showcase vegetables, and make it fun.
Do it cheap.
We didn’t have the budget to hire a professional photographer, so I built out a series of vegetable and fruit icons and image assets that could be used instead of photos.
The site is primary card-based, drawing inspiration from Google’s Material Design guidelines. This was most effective way to organize the site’s information, given that it would be quite text heavy, especially on the menu screen. Cards would help create a clear visual hierarchy.
SOME INITIAL WIREFRAMES
AND GRAPHICS
