A longtime client of mine called me and asked if I would be willing to meet with a friend of his who was planning to open a restaurant and needed some help with branding. He had a general idea to open a pizza place that served good beer, but no menu yet. He also had a space to build the restaurant, but beyond that, all he had was a name – he planned to call it The Rusty Onion.
When the three of us sat down to meet, the client mentioned that he hoped to create a concept that he could franchise in time, and then he started talking about his vision for the logo, which involved an illustrated onion. I was fully prepared to try to talk him out of it, but I knew I needed to explore the option, nonetheless. I also knew that in order to make a name like The Rusty Onion work for a restaurant, the brand would need some serious swagger. A few weeks later, we met again to review some comps. This was clearly the winner in the bunch:
The tagline is definitely ambitious in its claim. The client questioned it for this reason, to which I responded, "with a name like that, you'd better be." He agreed, and the concept of The Rusty Onion began to take shape. The original comp became our promo logo, and we also developed an official version that describes the product offering.
The building's allowance for signage required a horizontal version of the logo for the electrical sign, which is also fitted with green LEDs to help brighten the color palette at night.
The personality of this brand positions it to become a franchise at every opportunity.
Because of the specifcations required for printing on pizza boxes in terms of colors and trapping, an interesting 2-color version was also born. The text is designed such that a group of people crowded around a pizza box can get a sense for the product offering at any angle without having to try to read upside down.
The business card design helps to tie the pizza box design in more closely with the rest of the brand. These are printed on 16pt silk laminate with spot UV to highlight the logo on the front and to deliver a hidden message on the back that explains the QR code for those who aren't familiar with them.
The most important piece for a restaurant is without question the menu. This one is playful and incorporates consumer psychology to focus attention on certain menu items. It is printed on tear- and water-resistant paper stock to eliminate the need for laminating or menu covers, and the front layout is intended to allow for the use of a single design for the in house and take out menus.
The initial design for t-shirts is intended to aid in sales appeal as well as serving as staff uniforms. Using the promo logo on the back aims to create curiosity about the business offering, leading to increased website visits and social meda interactions.
The website is built in Wordpress using a custom child theme of a responsive theme designed specifically for restaurants. It treats each menu item as a post so that they can be categorized, sorted and managed individually.
