Pal Upadhyaya Portfolio

Chaayos

Style Frames, Visual Design, Concept Development, Personal Project

2024

Description

This project is a vibrant blend of photography, graphic design, and illustration, created to showcase the charm of Chaayos, an Indian tea café brand. The style frames reflect the nostalgic experience of enjoying a cup of masala chai, capturing the essence of Indian culture and the brand's warmth. By integrating real-life photo elements with hand-drawn illustrations, the visuals convey a playful yet authentic story that connects emotionally with viewers, celebrating the love for chai and its role in everyday Indian life.

About Chaayos

Founded in 2012 by IIT alumni Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma.  
First outlet in Gurgaon, offering customizable chai with 12,000+ combinations.  
Expanded rapidly, becoming a leading tea café chain in India.  

The Problem

How to visually represent Chaayos' brand identity in a way that combines cultural nostalgia and modern appeal, while using mixed media techniques to create a cohesive advertisement.

Objective

This campaign aims to celebrate the cultural diversity and universal love for tea in India, using Chaayos as a unifying element that connects people from all walks of life. The storyline is centered on a single Chaayos tea cup journeying through different settings and lifestyles, demonstrating its presence across various aspects of Indian life.

Brainstorming

Keywords: Nostalgia, culture, and aroma.  
Captured chai lovers’ comfort and warmth.  
Used familiar phrases for relatability.
Visuals of kulhads (clay cups), steam, and tea stalls.  
Evoked memories of rain, samosas, and connection.

Ideation

Rough doodles capturing the warmth of chai culture—kulhads(clay cups), steaming kettles, a mustached chaiwala (tea-seller), and a bustling tea stall. Flowing tea, samosas, and rainy-day nostalgia evoke comfort, tradition, and the joy of Chaayos tea.

Concept

This campaign celebrates India’s cultural diversity and universal love for tea, with Chaayos as the unifying element across different settings and lifestyles. The story follows Chaayos tea through relatable moments: a roadside tea stall, a bustling train station, and a quiet rainy window.

The video begins with a streetside vendor pouring tea, transitioning to a railway station vendor serving a cup to a train passenger. Next, tea is enjoyed with samosas on a rainy day by the window, followed by a satisfying sip and an exclamation of delight. The final frames showcase Chaayos' iconic green cup and Masala Chai branding.

Chaayos seamlessly fits into these everyday scenes, connecting people from all walks of life over a shared love for chai.