Chai & Vibes

Building real-life and viral digital communities for Gen Z American Muslims. I designed the brand, logo, and visuals for Chai & Vibes, a California-based social collective for Muslim Americans. Chai & Vibes was a community building event space designed to foster connection across the United States.

Founding Head of Design, Graphic Design, Branding Strategy, Experience Design, Service Design, Marketing

Problem:

How do you build a community in the wake of a pandemic? As COVID pandemic restrictions lifted, Gen Z began re-entering the world. A social space specifically for South Asian Muslim Gen Z did not exist, and the necessity for a culturally relevant social scene grew. A large disconnect grew within the community, and after two years of lockdown, the Muslim-American community in large cities was disparate and disconnected.

Goal:

Design an on- and offline community for Gen Z Muslim Americans, that is culturally relevant, inclusive, and tailored.

Solution:

Build a viral digital presence with highly shared Instagram content into an online community that would organically grow into an offline community through in person meet ups and events. The community is called Chai & Vibes — “chai” or “cha” in Muslim circles represents the drink over which we gather. Chai & Vibes perfectly emulates the community we were trying to build — a Muslim, digitally active community that could gather over a cup of chai.

How I thought about this problem:

1. I first ideated on the logo, which would come to become an iconic representation of the viral community. I asked myself — what’s in a logo? The logo needed to portray the casual, ‘sobre-mesa’ type of social environment we were curating.

   I experimented with:

   • Colors

   • Themes

   • Styles

   • Font

   I leaned into ‘retro’ design - Sans Serif, loopy letters that portray a sense of fun.

   I ideated on the concept of late night diners - no alcohol, late night, perfect for chatting all night.

   To optimize for a logo, I pared down the full on diner sign into a tilted triangle - a deconstructed diner sign that portrayed the same casual, retro, late night feeling as a late night diner sign — the very vibe C&V was curating in real life.

2. Localize assets. As Chai & Vibes grew in popularity, we began expanding to other cities and moving beyond our origin city of Los Angeles. I ideated on how to best portray what Chai & Vibes was to our new cities, and how to connect to a new community.

I researched iconic landmarks in our new cities, and made sure our event posters and stickers (placed on our chai cups) represented the city landmarks. I also paid homage to famous musicians from those cities — A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, and Frank Ocean — by using iconic album covers as event posters.

The event posters incorporated iconic city-specific landmarks, paid homage to musicians from the city, and laid back color schemes. All events were held in historic parks and green spaces.

3. Gather Feedback. After every event, feedback forms were sent out, where I analyzed ratings and pros and cons from each attendee. I learned that folks wanted more icebreakers, a place to pray, and dairy-free chai through these feedback forms. Every event served as an opportunity to gather data and iterate.

Impact

Chai & Vibes is now a distinctive brand within the Muslim community, with an Instagram following of over 3000 people. Chai & Vibes has hosted 10+ events, across Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Dallas. The average attendee count is 600 people. The brand has grown into a household name within Muslim communities. Most of my event posters went viral, with over 200 shares.

Learnings

Building a digital community into an IRL community is possible when organizers focus on a niche. By focusing deeply on our niche, Gen Z Muslim Americans, events were tailored and community-centric. In the future, I would do more community outreach and survey our attendees more to gather more granular feedback.