This is a smaller brand identity designed by Minou Sinios for the Delphine Eatery & Bar. I’m highlighting this because it shows that even a little bit of design and color can make a brand pop. The strong typography communicates well and the color is unexpected, but well received.

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Tapas 24, designed by Clase BCN, is a tapas bar with a super rustic feel. The restaurant’s identity is driven by rough mix of woodcut style typefaces and highly contrasting colors. It’s one of the few situations where more than 2-3 typefaces can be used in a design. Usually this creates a horrible design feel to a brand, but this is done well and it’s not extended beyond the actual restaurant logo. Here’s how they describe it:

A “tapas” of fonts for the Tapas restaurant, 24 of the Catalan chef Carles Abellán. The essence of the new identity is based on a fresh mix of fonts, icons, and illustrations used in a single color on very basic material, recreating the image of the typical tapas bars of Barceloneta in a contemporary way.

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The team at Analogue in the UK have put together this industrial-style brand for The Hummingbird Kitchen & Bar. It’s well crafted from signage to menus. Here’s what they have to say about it:

For the project we focused on textures and typography and the art direction of the food photography was also a key element in creating the right brand image.

The logo is a mix of tradition and contemporary elements and the external sign this was fabricated in mild steel which will rust over time and add too it’s character and appearance.

The food menus are presented on bespoke hand made and distressed clipboards and the paper is 100% natural, it contains flecks of elephant poo, it has a great tactile quality.

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Lick Yoghurt is a lovely, small brand for a shop in the UK. It’s “fluffy” and bright. The interior is well done, especially the lighting. Designed by Freshwest

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The design crew at Blend It brings us this identity for a cafe and pastry shop. Red and blue are hard colors to work with, but I think they nailed this duo with the addition of browns to make it more natural on a couple of levels. The visual dash cutting the wordmark in half makes a lovely visual pun too. Here’s how they describe their inspiration:

Checkpoint Charlie was the most famous crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Fascinating and dramatic stories – personal, urban, and national – have been used by us to create a visual language for a Berlin-style cafe.

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I really can’t hold off on this any longer. For the last several months, I’ve undertaken a complete redevelopment of a restaurant concept in Hawaii. Those of you who are close to me know a little bit about it. I was charged with naming, developing, and branding the concept from scratch. The first location opened in Manoa Marketplace last month, and today the second location has opened. The owner, and visionary, Allen, has graced me with a few teaser photos. In them you can see the amount of work I’ve put into it and the amount of trust and freedom he’s granted me as a restaurant brand consultant. There will be more photos and a true case study posted to the Vigor website down the road. There is so much to show with regard to packaging and design, but for now, here’s GRYLT’s Waikiki Shopping Center location, opened today.

Yes, that menu is in Japanese.

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Sussner Design Company brings us a great array of work for Minneapple Pie. The colors are vibrant and fun which I think immediately represents the tasty goodness inside. They steered clear of the expected use of green and red and jumped at the opportunity for fun packaging with lively illustrations. Well implemented and the differences between each touch point make it not only exciting to experience, but it also creates a truly dynamic brand where each piece builds instead of just supports.

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This lovely little brand package for a cafe includes interior design, packaging design and advertising all surrounding a minimalist, yet unique logo/brand design. Designed by Isak Winther, Te & Kaffi is a 10 year old cafe located in Iceland.

The logo is a rendering of two cups super imposed over top one another. It creates a unique mark that pops in its simplicity. From there, the brand is extended with the same minimalist ideals making it clean, crisp and strong. The alteration of the logo to mimic a cow’s udders for the milk packaging is especially noteworthy.

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This is an awesome way to depict a restaurant’s experience, it’s brand, and it’s essence. This is a video done for the restaurant Cafeteria in NYC. I’ve eaten there and it’s quite tasty. Great ambiance as well.

A lot of restaurants are concerned about whether or not daily deals like Groupon, Living Social and various others actually encourage repeat business, or if they’re just a great way to throw away food. EMarketer just posted some statistics on the subject that break down the results you can expect. Click here for the full article on emarketer.com