A Ren Fair In The City
By: Zachary Carcy
Tags: Case Study, Visual Design, UX, Branding, Coronavirus

A Ren Fair In The City: A Case Study

INTRO

Solving the problem of dining out during these unprecedented times was our biggest challenge. As a team, we tackled every obstacle and figured out a way to not only make dining out a reality again, but introduce a fun twist. How can we make dining out a safe and get people excited? We worked as a cohesive team sharing ideas and critiquing each others work constantly to make sure it was all up to standard.

PROBLEM

The problem we were trying to solve was boredom. In today’s world where everyone is locked inside going out to dinner has become a thing of the past. People are more bored than ever nowadays, with restaurants being takeout only, and concerts and shows being canceled, people need a new form of entertainment. Our solution was Knights! We wanted to create a way for people to have a fun dinner experience without compromising safety. We thought what if we could bring a renaissance fair to the customer. We wanted to create an immersive experience, a dinner and a show taken to the next level! Our goal is to make people feel as if they’ve been teleported back in time to a land of kings, queens and magic; to a realm of endless possibilities, where everyone feels like royalty.

Concepts for company names

Concepts for drink and sauce names

PROCESS

The process of creating our project started with multiple group meetings where we discussed all the directions we could take our idea. The concept of a Renaissance Faire themed delivery service allowed for near unlimited options creatively, so it was up to us to figure out how to condense the idea into a cohesive and understandable service. The start of this phase was determining who the audience for our service is. By doing some quick research we found that ren fairs are actually extremely popular among all ages. It’s a family catered event that has things for both older and younger customers, and it’s a fun and exciting time for all. With this in mind, we created a mind map to flesh out how the service works.

User Personas

Menu plannig

Early stages of website plannig

Website mindmapping

With the main idea in place we got to designing. Unfortunately we immediately ran into trouble trying to think of a name for our project. We spent an hour brainstorming ideas, and then each group member chose a different name. The next issue we encountered was creating an ordering system. Renaissance Fairs are inherently a social event, and we had to figure out how to create that festival experience while also making sure our service was socially distant. At first we had a normal delivery service, then a buffet style service, then a food truck based service, before combing all of our ideas into a Brazilian steakhouse style dinner. At a Brazilian steakhouse waiters (gauchos) come table to table each with a different cut of meat and serve the customers. The waiters know who to serve due to a card the customer has that signifies if they are hungry or not. We took this system and made it digital, allowing our customers to have as much food as they want during each course, and it keeps people from having to interact with each other. With the ordering system in place, we began designing. We based the website on our original project mind map, but tweaked it to be more intuitive.

Mobile orering app wireframe

Desktop wireframe

Most of our main problems occurred during the planning stages of the projects, so once we had our mindmaps completed and our main idea in place, the actual design went pretty smoothly. For deliverables, we chose to create items that someone might expect to find at a normal renaissance faire. Custom drink and sauce containers allowed us the opportunity to get creative with packaging, and shirt designs for our employee uniforms. These deliverables allowed us to set a tone for the project, while also going more in depth with how the service works.

Final deliverables

Fire Grill By Zach Carcy

For my individual brand identity I wanted to play off of the idea of mideviel fantasy. I tried to make my work seem as if it was apart of a fantasy game. I focused on using illustrations and textures to make thinks seem old and more magical.

Logo

Style tile

Staff uniforms

Mobile desktop and mobile ordering app

Desktop view

Mobile version of desktop

Menu ordering app video

Colin McCarthy

For my individual brand I wanted to play into the fantasy storybook aspects of medieval food and aesthetics. My logo started off very illustrative, but I managed to pivot all the main aspects of those illustrations into a modern and clean design. I was able to implement the storybook style of my brand heavily into the website, and from there I brought those illustrated elements into my drink and sauce bottles, as well as my takeout packages.

Desktop Site

Screens from the mobile site

Ordering Service App

Drink containers, Sauce bottles, and takeout packaging

Custom Shirts

Lute & Lamb by Jonathon Vessal

For my individual brand I wanted to replicate the look of and feel of an old restaurant, with a slight modern touch. I wanted my work to replicate that of an old wood cut sign. I tried to make the illustration itself more rugged to get the same look.

Final logo

Lute & Lamb Style Tile

Desktop Site

Screens from the mobile site and ordering app

Screenshot from the mobile app of the ordering system

Video of mobile website

Video of ordering app

Shafi Muhammad