Yolanda Emmatya

JOYFUL COOKING CLASS

Turning homemade lessons into a cohesive brand that feels as joyful as it sounds.

JOYFUL COOKING CLASS

Turning homemade lessons into a cohesive brand that feels as joyful as it sounds.

JOYFUL COOKING CLASS

Turning homemade lessons into a cohesive brand that feels as joyful as it sounds.

PROCESS HIGHLIGHTS

Tackling the Challenges and Shaping the Experience

Overview

Joyful Cooking Class is a baking and cooking school in Surabaya. The rebrand aimed to update its outdated visual identity and digital presence, making it more fun, modern, and appealing, especially to younger learners.

Timeline

2022

Tools

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Blender
Adobe Dimension

Responsibilities

Brand audit and research
Visual identity re-design
Application design (merchandise, stationary, etc)

BACKGROUND

Whisks, warmth, and welcoming vibes.

Joyful Cooking Class started as a small family run course that grew into a popular cooking school in Surabaya. For over a decade, it has welcomed learners, mainly women and children, to explore the joy of cooking. However, its old branding did not reflect the playfulness or warmth of the brand name. The rebrand was driven by the need to match the quality of its teaching with an equally warm and clear brand presence.

CHALLENGES

Missing fun in first impression

Joyful’s previous logo and visuals didn’t reflect its spirit. The design felt generic, disconnected, and visually inconsistent across media. There was also no strong brand voice to attract younger learners or convey the fun, low-pressure environment Joyful actually offers.

Logo

The new logo swaps stiff forms for rounded, lowercase lettering with playful curves. Hidden within the letters is a subtle smiling expression, bringing personality and approachability to the forefront. The design avoids literal icons (like whisks or chef hats), focusing instead on soft, human-centered shapes that represent inclusivity and creativity.

Color & Typography

Pinks and blues add a sense of comfort and friendliness, while the typography system ensures clarity across materials, from recipe cards to digital interfaces.

Typography

The type system uses a mix of Uniform, Nanami, and Verdana to balance structure with friendliness. Uniform and Nanami provide a clean, modern base for headings and key visuals, while Verdana adds readability and accessibility, perfect for long-form content like class info or recipes.

Problem Discovery

A brand audit showed a lack of visual consistency across all Joyful touchpoints, from packaging to uniforms to promotional materials. There was also no user-friendly online system to support class discovery and registration. This limited Joyful’s growth and accessibility, especially to younger, digital-first users.

The new Joyful logo works because it captures the brand’s warmth and playful nature without relying on clichés. Its rounded, lowercase letters feel friendly and non-intimidating, perfect for beginners and family audiences. The subtle smiling expression in the letterforms adds personality, while the soft colors and fluid shapes reflect the fun, approachable experience the cooking class aims to offer.

REFLECTION

Designing, Then Discovering

This project helped me understand how brand personality must be woven through every visual and interactive detail. Rebranding isn’t just a visual task, it’s an emotional translation of a brand’s soul. With the updated identity, Joyful Cooking Class is now more aligned with its name: friendly, approachable, and truly joyful. For me, I think the website could’ve been pushed further, especially in how it brings out the brand’s tone through microinteractions and copy. It’s something I’d love to expand if I had more time.

This project taught me how technical animation, emotional design, and user interaction can blend into one cohesive experience. I learned to translate abstract problems like, “How can a chatbot feel human?” into practical, creative solutions.

It also sparked a deeper interest in the world of digital design, how they can work together to create engaging and human-centered experiences. This project made me want to explore more tech-driven design challenges in the future. Looking ahead, I’d love to explore more adaptive character behaviors, like visual cues that react to user tone or real-time sentiment or small emotional feedback loops to make future interactions feel more natural, expressive, and human.

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