Intro
In this project I rebranded the Chinese restaurant "Hunan Ranch" by giving it a set identity/reputation with a strong logo, business cards and other touchpoints relevant to the business. One of the main focuses was making it look delicious with just typography. People who don’t know this restaurant is yummy wouldn’t guess that by the sign outside. While the client did have a website and a temporary logo, their branding wasn't consistent throughout their store. One challenge I had from the beginning was the battle between making the vibe more traditional or high-class versus more fun and take-outish.
Creative Process
Design Concepting
I decided to go with a dynamic design with a lot of movement so as to capture the literal cooking motions with the wok and also express the liveliness of the culture and flavors of the food. The three multicolored splashes can be seen as whatever the viewer perceives it as- sauce, vegetables, fire, food, the correct answers are up to the imagination. I used a warp on the wok (pan) itself to make it less stiff and to give it some dimension. To give it even more dimension and realism I added a red gradient to the bottom of the wok so it looks as if its really hot- giving way to the idea that the food it hot and steamy. Making the H in Hunan green instead of red really ties in the word mark with the splashes. The H is actually meant to be an extension of one of the splashes, hence why the end is pointy and the bottoms are teardrop-like.
One challenge of this project was not getting too stereotypical with the design and especially the typeface. I feel that once you see a business using a stereotypically asian font (bamboo letters,chopstick letters etc.) you know it’s going to be takeout, or fast food quality food. So even though I wanted to communicate the oriental factor of the equation, I had to be careful to not overdo it and lower the overall quality of the design.
This design came out exactly how I envisioned it from the beginning. It expresses the comfort, and homey-ness of the restaurant’s atmosphere but at the same time the quality of the food (hot, authentic, and delicious) and it’s place of origin (use of the wok and location Hunan).
Note- Personal project not commercial work
