Sunny’s Café
2024
Brand Identity
Print Design
Illustration
A response to the nostalgia for Hong Kong and rekindling connection to Cantonese culture my thesis is a concept cafe for youth and young people (18-30) to gather and immerse in Cantonese/Chinese culture and interact with others within the community.
Sunny's Café is an idea borne out of documenting and conceptualizing what a safe comfortable space for Cantonese Canadians to interact and practise their culture is like. This cafe is designed to help customers with affirmation, navigating and defining the remnants of the culture they experience.


Other than a documentative process, I wanted to include cultural nods such as the tile designs or food items unique to HK culture. The art of tile designs in Hong Kong architecture are used as a motif in my tile motifs within my designs as a nod for authenticity and also preserving the memory of older HK architecture.
Tools used
Figma, Illustrator, Procreate
Contribution
Website design, Social Media Assets, Brand Identity
Print & Digital Artefacts
The brand name “Sunny’s Cafe” or Yeung Gwon Cafe (Sunshine Cafe) connotates a “sunny” personality, which has a very warm and comforting connotation in both english and Cantonese. The second word “Cafe” or 冰室 "bing sutt" translates directly to an “ice room” or just a sort of modern hangout spot, like cafes in Canada.



The character, named Sunny, is an older woman who could be a mother, grandma, or aunty (by blood or by social relation). This is ambiguous as this icon is to represent any motherly figure who may share culture with you, regardless to relation to you. The café is meant to stand in and be there in this way for its patrons. As a community, for those that need it, this community can also serve as a substitute as a cultural centre especially for those who may not be able to rekindle their culture alone solely due to lack of familial ties or other reasons.
Takeaways
As a Cantonese diaspora there is a sense of dissonance between one’s ethnic culture and lived culture. Through my research I found the roots of diasporic innovation as well as an attitude to put down roots and redefine how you want to blend two of these identities. My final project is created as my own solution to aid with diaspora recovery, to lay new roots down in how I want to guide and document my own resources that allow me to reconcile, process nostalgia, and grow to learn more about my culture.