Burger For A Day

We were still getting used to the process of working remotely - as we were going through the first weeks of quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic - when chef Ian Baiocchi proposed to us a challenge we had never yet faced: building a full brand from scratch in a week. Realising that the pandemic would have a huge impact on the restaurant business (and probably for a long time), Ian decided that he would not only improve the delivery system of his already existing restaurants, but would also open up a new restaurant solely focused on deliveries and takeout meals. What came from that was a simple, yet ingenious idea.

Serving a different type of burger each day. That’s Burger-for-a-day. Each new working day comes with an entirely novel recipe. And each day they are served with fresh ingredients, including daily baked buns.

Design sprint - Although we were committed to an ultra tight schedule, we made sure we followed every step of a regular branding process, but squishing them on few days. Day 1 was dedicated for naming the brand - the client already had the name in mind, but wasn’t dead set on it - and mapping out possible creative directions for the project. On Day 2 we researched and mood-boarded two possible directions and chose the one we thought was better suited to the client's brief. The chosen one was named Daily News. It started out as a homage to old newspapers and tabloids, but with a very pop twist to it. That’s why we paired a blackletter logotype with a sign-painting inspired typeface for the brand statement. Day 3 and Day 4 were used for getting the logo, graphics and overall brand language finished and approved by the client. From that until Day 7 our focus was packaging and prints. Sent the files to the printer and little over a week later the brand and the restaurant were up and running.

Sharing is caring - Burger-for-a-day not only serves a new burger each day, but also open sources the recipes on the restaurant's Instagram timeline. Anyone can make the recipes at home, critique and even suggest new ones for the chef. We named this an Open Source Burger Culture and it’s the brand’s biggest statement.

We probably couldn’t have asked for a better project for kicking off our new work reality. Burger-for-a-day is a chef/entrepreneur’s direct response for the times we are going through and, as designers, we were invited to find solutions alongside him. This once in a lifetime event (we hope!) has put our efficiency and process to the roughest of tests. It is certainly true that not every project can be sized down to a week’s work, but we believe that for Burger-for-a-day this method worked like a charm. With only a few months on the run, we can already say the business is an absolute success in Goiânia (Brazil), and it sure made it easier for Chef Ian Baiocchi and his employees to go through the pandemic period.