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9Tea3 is a Chicago-based tea brand offering premium organic and herbal blends sourced from Australia. Founded by two of my college friends, the brand fuses their love for tea and 90s Hip Hop.
I was brought on to build the brand identity and support the product launch—creating the logo, product labels, Shopify website, and setting the creative direction for social media.
9Tea3 is a one-of-a-kind brand rooted in the culture and sound of the 90s—an era that elevated icons like The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop Dogg, and Outkast. Blending wellness, culture, bold flavor, and the spirit of hip-hop, R&B, and soul, 9Tea3 is as innovative and transformative as the music that inspired it.
With that in mind, I aimed to capture the nostalgic energy of the 90s, weaving in clear hip-hop references to craft a visual identity that reflects the brand’s unique vibe.
I began shaping the brand identity with the logo design, starting—as I always do—by exploring typefaces. I focused on two styles: ones reminiscent of graffiti, a key element of hip-hop culture, and ones with distinctive 9s and 3s. For the former, I looked at handwritten, stenciled, and sketch-style fonts with imperfect letterforms. For the latter, I sought numerals bold and unique enough to stand alone as a logomark.
After selecting a few typeface options, I began sketching logo concepts on my iPad—exploring different ways to capture the brand’s essence. Some sketches featured leaves, others tea sachets, and some focused solely on text. Once I had a solid batch of ideas, I narrowed them down to the strongest concepts to use as references for creating vector artwork in Illustrator.
In creating vector art in Illustrator, I found that some of my ideas didn’t quite hold up and needed to be tweaked for a more refined design. In refining, some ideas were eliminated from further exploration. Ultimately, I settled on (6) logo concepts to present, all of which have clear hip-hop references: Abstract, Tribe Vibe, Mathematics, Graffi “TEA”, Cypher, and Da’ Dip.
In a nod to one of the most prolific emcees and producers in hip-hop (Q-Tip), the ‘Abstract’ concept is a clean, symmetrical, yet unconventional design. I modified the Staatliches typeface by adding angles and sharp edges to the arms and legs of the characters, while applying tight kerning and negative space to create a unique logo. And in an effort to tie-in the product, I replaced the bar in the letter ‘A’, with a tea leaf.
In further homage to Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest, the ‘Tribe Vibe’ concept is a tribute to the legendary group. Leveraging the Catenary Stamp typeface, I created a logomark out of the characters 9, T and 3 to mimic the stick figures that are integral to the ATCQ brand identity. Additionally, I used the Rock Salt Regular typeface to typeset the brand name in a circle, making the ATCQ logo influence obvious.
Named after the song released in 1999 from one of my absolute all time favorite artists, Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def), the ‘Mathematics’ concept leverages lines and shapes to create a simple geometric design. Using the Megrim and Museo Moderno Light typefaces, I wanted to create a logo inspired by of the Egyptian symbolism that was displayed and popularized by the 90’s rap group, X Clan.
Influenced by the graffiti style of tagging, the Graffi “TEA” concept is reminiscent of the stylized spray paint writing pioneered by young kids in Philly and New York in late 60’s and 70’s. Using the typefaces Sedgwick Avenue and Sivar Pro, I created a logo that mimics the visual expression once seen as vandalism, and is now a celebrated art form; similar to how hip-hop was once a subculture that has become mainstream.
Named after this long-established battle of emcees, the ‘Cypher’ concept leverages the formation of the circle as the foundation of the design. As such, the logo is round and meant to resemble the rings that are sometimes left from the moisture that gathers at the bottom of a tea or coffee cup. To achieve this effect, I applied a pencil brush stroke to a circle and paired that graphic with the Arsilon typeface.
Titled after the hip-hop dance song released in 1996, the ‘Da’ Dip’ concept is a wordplay on the act of dipping tea. Taking the same vector art from the Graffi “TEA” concept, I created a new graphic in the shape of a tea sachet. Leveraging the numbers 9 and 3, I used the negative space to create a distinctive logomark. The intent was to capture the spirit a cultural moment, while visually illustrating the product being sold.
The next key step was designing the product labels. I made the logo’s leaf the focal point and assigned colors to each blend based on its main ingredient or name theme. To reinforce these themes, I used those colors—or black for contrast—on specific words in the product names. Printer restrictions required white borders and no bleeds, so I recommended black pouches for maximum contrast and vibrancy. The result is a bold, cohesive, and refined product line.
With the product labels complete, I moved on to designing the Shopify site. Using the Modular theme, I built a Figma template from theme screenshots and designed the UI around it. After finalizing the page designs, I exported all assets and uploaded them to Shopify. Despite theme limitations, I closely replicated the Figma prototype using custom HTML and CSS.
Being that music is such an integral part of the 9Tea3 brand identity, the team wanted to include a page on the site called ‘Sips & Sounds’, wherein curated playlists are pulled in from Spotify. In addition to building the Sips & Sounds page, I also created the look and feel of the brand’s Spotify channel.
To support social media marketing on Facebook and Instagram, I created branded visuals in Photoshop and Figma. I then exported assets into Canva, building custom templates the team could easily use for content creation. To reinforce brand recognition, each template features the 9Tea3 logo and, where relevant, the product pouches.
