Design Process: Sardines restaurant identity
Project and Concept
Initially a course project assigned, requiring a logo, letterhead, envelope, and business card. However, this project grew substantially in its breadth as I continued to revisit it and add to the brand for my own personal growth.
I wanted to develop a brand that portrayed characteristics of class, quality, uniqueness, and was based on ethical, sustainable practices (as all brands should). I decided on a restaurant, and I'm honestly not sure how the notion of sardines came into my head initially during a brainstorming session. I don't even eat fish. But upon further research, I felt that the name was definitely unique, and learned that sardines are currently one of the best fish for sustainability purposes (Seafood Watch's report).
Wordmark: Typography
The challenge became to take a well-known fish associated with canning and establish it as a high-quality restaurant. Typing the word out on-screen in a few typefaces, it was quickly apparent which direction to take the wordmark -- using the familiarity of sardines in a can; I could already see it wanting to form in all caps.
Word association brought me to thinking about the Mediterranean since so much fish is eaten there, including sardines. So I went in search of a condensed typeface that would also look high-class and old-world European. The letters needed to be tall and thin, and with some sense of flair. I came upon Eccentric Std, which reminds me of the Art Deco and Art Nouveau periods, which fit perfectly into the feeling I knew was needed.
Further modifications were needed in order to transform the typeface into a wordmark, however. It wasn't condensed enough, and definitely didn't look like fish squished into a can.
The changes I made include kerning in the letters, modifying the face so that the letters would both sit next to each other without overlap, extending the N, straightening letters, combining many of the feet. and lengthening the x-height.
Afterwards I added the tag line "Oceanic Cuisine" to emphasize the type of business.
Imagery
More research into sardines revealed unique methods of harvesting them. Light fishing seems to draw the fish up to the surface in a spiral pattern, and it's a method used off the Mediterranean coast. I still wanted to continue on the Art Deco/Art Nouveau appearance, so I decided to use organic line work to simulate what the sardines spiraling up to the surface might look like. I felt it'd make a good backdrop if I kept it in cool, Mediterranean colors, like cyan.
Preliminary Design Comps
This is where I realized that I needed to change my secondary typeface (Verdana) and that my color palette was too stark. The cyan, even on the back of the business card, was not rich enough and so the entire thing looked washed out. The tagline's typeface (Verdana) was too strong of a contrast and unfittingly digital-era. There is where the design transformed from a small course project to a much larger, self-directed growth project.
Re-Design, Revise, Improve
I knew that I needed a new typeface that was more humanistic, and I needed to add a warm color somehow to the palette to make the whole thing pop. I especially thank Barbara Combs from Gravity Creative for her input, who told me that the design needed something to make her hungry.
What followed was a lot of thinking in digital-form. I experimented with adding various colors and typefaces. I tried a cool Mediterranean coral color, red and pink (like the inside of the fish), yellow for the common lemons served with grilled sardines, and several other colors. I tried different papers (note the ivory paper just looked yellow next to the cyan). Finally I landed on chocolate brown, but it needed broken up to read as brown (instead of black). So I pulled part of the line work onto the back of the card, too.
Completed Design
This project spilled over into an invitation and menu as well, shown below. A wonderful growing experience! I hope that it demonstrates my drive to get a project right, no matter what it takes.
Referenced on
this page:
Seafood Watch report on sardines
Bumble Bee sardines image copyright Bumble Bee
Fish Catching Methods of the World