Elsa’s is a local cantina and restaurant in Dayton, Ohio. Known for their legendary drinks and the Super Burrito, Elsa’s has always been a place locals to gather and celebrate. Elsa’s restaurants have evolved from just one, little quaint Mexican eatery to three other locations within the Dayton area and one location in Florida. At Elsa’s, there’s always a guarantee of laughs and good times with good company.
The purpose of the redesign of Elsa’s is to portray the restaurant in a more modern light. Overall, the place has a pretty typical Mexican restaurant aesthetic to it. On the exterior and interior, there are giant paintings of salsa dancers, cacti, Mariachi bands, etc… with the original typeface posted everywhere. The original design of the logotype consisted of bubble letter forms filled with the traditional mexican colors of red, green and white. It’s accompanied by a san serif font. For the redesign of the logotype, a line based typeface with serifs was chosen to give the logotype Mexican authenticity without using common images or colors found in most Mexican restaurants. This type of font can be found in Mexican lettering in mostly tattoos but this is a toned down version to fit the setting. The color palette is representative of colors found in traditional Mexican folk art. The warmer colors give life back to a restaurant that is located in a dull, gray area in Dayton, Ohio and make the location more inviting.
The one thing that was drastically changed for the redesign was the menu. As far as menus go, this one was cluttered, disorganized, and confusing. There was a combination of both traditional bar foods and authentic Mexican foods. In order to keep the menu as concise as possible, foods that fell under the traditional bar foods category were cut.
Elsa's new logo at various scales, with and without color
A new letterhead, business card, and envelope design
Website design for Elsa's including a home page and menu page
Redesign of Elsa's menu
Spring 2016
Thanks for looking!
