BRAND STRATEGY × PRODUCT THINKING
Daily Seoul
A Korean food brand designed like a product, every decision tested against the three seconds a food-court customer actually gives you.
Company|
H Mart · Market Eatery Team
Timeline |
2025 - 2026
Tag |
Sole Designer · Brand · Identity · Environment
+18%
Average ticket after menu revision
1 -> 3
Locations in under a year
9
Design iterations in 5 months
1
Designer, end to end
30 SECOND READ
Ran research without a research team, observing real customer behavior at the counter and using it as data.
Iterated after ship, not just before launch, revising menu hierarchy based on what actually converted foot traffic.
Owned the system end to end, as a solo designer working across three stakeholder groups and three locations to build one cohesive brand.
CONTEXT
Building a brand from scratch, inside a food court
H Mart’s food court team needed a new Korean food brand that felt approachable to both families and the MZ generation, while staying modern without losing its Korean identity. As the sole designer on the Market Eatery team, I owned every visual decision, from naming direction to the physical space itself. After launch, I continued refining the experience based on how effectively the space converted foot traffic.
Stakeholders included the restaurant owner, VP, company president, direct manager, and broader team, each bringing different priorities that I had to align into one cohesive visual direction.
Constraint 1
Limited control over the physical space and had to make impact within fixed boundaries
Constraint 2
High foot traffic = 3~5 seconds to grab attention
Constraint 3
Multiple stakeholders with different tastes, needed one cohesive visual language
Brand direction & key decisions
Why it looks the way it does
Name - "Daily Seoul"
A place where Korean food is easy to reach, every day. Not a special occasion a daily habit. The name bridges Korean identity with an everyday, accessible feeling.
Target - Families + MZ generation
Korean food needed to feel welcoming to both a parent bringing kids and a younger customer discovering it for the first time. The brand had to speak to both without alienating either.
Color - Green & Yellow
Green anchors the brand in freshness and vitality, Korean food is alive, seasonal, and full of color. Yellow was chosen not as a contrast but as a companion: it softens the green's edge, adds warmth and appetite, and together they evoke a sunny Seoul street afternoon rather than a sterile health brand.
Fresh Scent Green
Vitality · approachability · Korean freshness
Bright Yellow
Vitality · approachability · Korean freshness
WHAT I MADE
Full brand, end to end
Logo & identity system
Food & concept photography
Menu design
Poster design
Table banners
Signage & environmental design
Packaging
Uniforms & merchandise
Social media (Instagram)
Lighting & tile selection
THE REAL WORK
Watching, not assuming
Launch wasn’t the finish line. It was the first data point. When early sales fell short of expectations, I treated that as a signal about the customer experience rather than a marketing problem and observed how people actually moved through the decision-making process.
01
Observe
Watched real customers at the counter after early sales came in low
02
Hypothesize
Menu hierarchy and photography weren't guiding decisions fast enough
03
Redesign
Rebuilt hierarchy, naming, and price placement around the 3-5s window
04
Validate
Watched again. This time, decisions came faster.
WHAT I OBSERVED
Customers scanned the board but hesitated before ordering
High-intent items were buried among equal-weight options
Photography and pricing weren't guiding the eye anywhere
WHAT I CHANGED
Reworked menu hierarchy so top items read first
Simplified naming and grouping to cut decision time
Re-shot photography and repositioned pricing to lead the eye
NINE REVISIONS, FIVE MONTHS
Jan 27
Daily Seoul menu launches
Feb 3
Design update
Feb 13
Added noodle dish, revised layout
Mar 6
Menu structure change
Mar 31
Combo menu added
Apr 29
New design direction
May 19
Daily Cupbap consolidation ships
Jun 8
FIFA seasonal campaign
IMPACT
18% increase in average ticket after the menu revision
Results
From one location to three, in under a year
Daily Seoul launched at H Mart's American Dream Mall flagship. Within less than a year, the brand expanded to two additional company-owned locations: Fairfax, Virginia and Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
3
Locations in under a year
NJ → VA
Multi-state expansion
1
Designer behind the entire brand
Process
Designing with many voices
As the only designer, I had to synthesize input from the restaurant owner, VP, president, and team, all with different aesthetic instincts, into a single coherent brand. This meant running multiple rounds of direction-setting before execution, and continuing to iterate even after launch based on sales performance.
Multiple concepts were explored across several rounds of stakeholder review before landing on the final direction.
Seasonal campaign
FIFA Gaming Season Campaign - American Dream Mall, NJ
After the brand launched, I continued evolving it through seasonal moments. For the FIFA gaming season, I created a one-month campaign for the American dream mall location, keeping the Daily Seoul identity intact while bringing in a fresh, sport-themed energy.
