Case study · A Rheanbow concept brand

Glad Tidings Lemonade Co.

A lemonade food truck brand built around one grumpy lemon, a cast of six, and a scroll film where sour turns glad.

The homepage film. On the site it plays as you scroll.

The brief

A truck that has to sell in three seconds.

A lemonade truck parks in a row of other trucks, and people decide where to walk in a few seconds. The same brand has to work on a phone, where most people find out where the truck is parked this weekend. It also needs to book private events, which is where a food truck makes its steadiest money.

So the brand had to be easy to spot from across a parking lot, with a menu you can read without squinting. And people had to remember it and come back.

The idea

Sour goes in.Glad comes out.

Every cup starts with a lemon that would rather not. The mascot, Big Squeeze, starts the story grumpy with his arms crossed and ends it grinning in a cup. The logo, the menu, the film and even the footer tell that same small story.

The name

Good news, poured cold.

Glad tidings is the old way of saying good news. The name carries the faith behind the brand quietly, the way a church picnic does. The one place it is said out loud is the footer of the site.

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”Romans 10:15, NKJV

Logo suite

Level, then loud.

The lettering started as loose brush work on a sketch sheet. It was leveled word by word and set on the bowls of the round letters so it reads at a glance, while the brush tails keep their bounce.

Primary

Stacked

Seal

Monogram

Reversed

Every lockup ships in green, cream and a two-ink print version, as SVG and 3000px PNG, so it can go straight onto cups, sleeves, stickers and signs.

Color and type

Two inks and a paper.

Leaf green does the drawing and the words. Butter does the filling. Cream is the paper under everything. Tomato shows up only where a little extra joy belongs: the cherries and one underline.

Leaf Green#23462CLine, lettering, text

Butter#F5DE86Fill plate, printed a touch off

Cream#FBF6EAThe paper

Tomato#E0553AAccent only

Never perfectly lined up.The butter always sits a few points down and to the right of the green, like a real two-color print pulled by hand, which keeps the brand from looking like clip art.

Young Serif

Headlines and menu names. Round and sturdy with a bit of old-fashioned charm, like a hand-painted price board.

Karla

Everything you read. A friendly grotesk that stays easy to read on a phone, never set smaller than 16px on screen.

The cast

Six lemons, six moods.

Each character has one mood and one job. They are drawn in the same two inks as the logo, so they look like they belong on the same cup.

Big Squeeze, a round grumpy lemon with crossed arms — **Big Squeeze**The sour one. Star of the film.

Sunny, a dancing lemon — **Sunny**First to dance.

Pucker, a lemon giving a peace sign — **Pucker**Peace sign, always.

Sour Sam, a tall lemon in sunglasses — **Sour Sam**Cool about it.

Zesty, a running lemon slice — **Zesty**Late, running.

Sweet Tea, a lemon lounging in sunglasses with a cup — **Sweet Tea**Off duty.

Event hosts

Each booking package has a host peeking over the ticket: Sunny for Porch Party, Big Squeeze for Block Party, and the rest of the crew for The Whole Town.

The footer crew

The whole cast gathers on a hill at the bottom of the site. Tap anyone and they say something in character.

Big Squeeze, everywhere

He stars in the film, and he pops up grinning in a cup when someone books the truck. Sunny holds the seal on every cup.

Supporting graphics

The truck, in pieces.

A set of hand-drawn icons for menus, sleeves, stickers and social posts, plus a half-drop pattern for cup sleeves, bags and tissue paper.

The film

One fall, start to finish.

The homepage is a single shot. As you scroll, Big Squeeze drops from his branch, meets the sun, cracks a grin and lands in a cup. The camera only ever falls, so scrolling down always moves the story forward.

Big Squeeze hanging from a branch, arms crossed — Grumpy on the branch

Big Squeeze falling past clouds, still grumpy — Still grumpy, now falling

Big Squeeze surprised by a smiling sun — The sun comes out

Big Squeeze laughing with arms open — He cracks

Big Squeeze above a smiling cup of lemonade — The cup rises to meet him

Big Squeeze grinning inside the cup — Glad comes out

Six keyframes
The story was drawn as six stills first and approved one by one before any video was made.
Widened for desktop
Each still was extended to a 21:9 frame so the film fills wide screens without cropping the lemon.
Five linked clips
Each clip starts on the real last frame of the one before, so the fall never jumps.
Re-inked
Every frame was redrawn into the two brand inks, so the film matches the logo exactly.
Played by scroll
484 frames play as you scroll. On phones the frame follows the lemon and fades into the page.

A raw video frame of Big Squeeze with pale, washed-out colors — **Before.** Raw frame from the video model. The greens drift and the paper turns gray.

The same frame re-inked in the Glad Tidings green and butter on cream — **After.** The same frame on the brand plates: leaf green line, butter fill, cream paper.

In the world

Real cups, real light.

Product photography for the menu, directed to feel like a sunny afternoon at the truck: hard shadows, wet ice, the green-ring seal on every cup so it stands out against the lemonade.

Classic lemonade with lemon wheels in a clear cup with the Glad Tidings seal

A salted soft pretzel on patterned wax paper beside a cup

Powdered-sugar lemon bars on patterned paper

The Glad Tidings truck: a yellow step van with a giant lemon on the roof, a striped awning and the green-ring seal painted on the side

The truck itself.

A yellow step van with a giant lemon on the roof, a striped awning and the seal painted on the side. On yellow, the seal switches to its green ring so it never disappears. It anchors the Visit section and gives the brand a real place to live.

The website

A story you scroll, then a menu you can read.

The film opens the site, then everything a customer needs follows in order: what’s on the menu, how to book the truck, and where it parks this weekend.

Homepage opening: Sour goes in, with Big Squeeze hanging grumpy from a branch — **The opening**Big Squeeze sways on his branch and glances around while he waits for you to scroll.

End of the film: Glad comes out, with Big Squeeze grinning in a cup and a Fresh badge — **The landing**The film ends in the cup with a splash, and the call to action arrives with it.

Menu section with four drink photos, names and prices — **The menu**Big photos, a name and one clear price for each drink.

Three event packages as ticket cards, each with a lemon host peeking over the top — **Book the truck**The truck drives in, and each package is a ticket. Tap one and it fills in the booking form for you.

Phone view of the homepage opening — **Built for phones**The film follows the lemon on a tall screen.

Phone view of the film ending — **Clear calls**Menu and truck, one tap each.

Phone view of the drinks as a swipe row — **Swipe the drinks**A short row instead of a long stack.

Phone view of the footer crew standing on two hills — **The crew**Everyone stands on the hill, and anyone will talk if you tap.

Brand sheet

Everything on one page.

The full brand sheet: logo suite, inks, type, cast, graphics, pattern and the brand in the world. Scroll inside the frame to see all of it.

Brands with a story and a cast.

Rheanbow designs brand identities, custom websites and the characters that live in them, for businesses that want to be remembered.

Start a project with Rheanbow See Glad Tidings live