My Cuppa Tea

 Yesterday I visited the best tea store I have ever been to. Now typically I'm not a tea fanatic, I generally only like overly citrus flavoured teas. However, once I stepped into David's Tea (the uptown Waterloo location), I was blown away by just how much I wanted to just smell and touch everything! I am particularly partial to the colour blue, and all of their branding was absolutely amazing.
And blue. It's clean, colourful and playful. The overall setup and aesthetic made me go insane.
This is coming from someone who doesn't particularly like tea! As a graphic design student I was so excited about the branding and design of the store, but the store itself definitely matched it's amazing design system.

                                    

As I walked around, and looked at more of the elaborately designed labels and colourful tins of tea, I spent 45 minutes looking, smelling, touching, and exploring this little store. In theory, would it be because of the strong branding? If I had walked in to a poorly designed store, would I even bother with trying the tea? No. I would simply assume that the tea is just as bad as the design of the place. However, the reverse is also true. I also assume that the tea is just as good as the design (it was, but that's beside the point).

Overall, I suppose that this was a good experience as a designer-in-training, a perfect example of the fact that people do indeed judge a book by its cover. This is a perfect way to attract people to your particular brand. I assume that David's tea was attracting a younger audience with its playful and colourful displays, yet with a hint of sophistication, so between the ages of 18 and 30 is about where I would aim for. Clearly it's a powerful tool, simple stimulants and words are bound to attract certain audiences. Which is quite amazing if you think about it. A little side note, I left with two tins of tea.