Project Snippet - Wild Wild Wings Brand Exploration

At Nextbite, the creative team helped bring to life, and inject new life, into many of the virtual kitchen concepts that the start-up owned. One such concept was Wild Wild Wings. They already had a logo (which you can see here), but it was (and still is) boring and expected in the space. One internal branding exercise we did was to re-brand Wild Wild Wings, and create something that spoke to the deliciousness of the offering, while also creating excitement digitally when no brick-and-mortar experience existed.

Below are three brand concepts that I created. Ultimately, a rebrand for Wild Wild Wings didn’t go through, but it’s fun to look back on what could have been right?

Concept 1

This simple logotype encapsulates the idea of mix-and-match; plain, legible type mixed with heatwave inspired text that could be arranged in a number of ways echoes Wild Wild Wings customization offering. Saucy brushstrokes contrast with the clean edges of the type, and mirror the appetite appeal of the offering. Yellows, oranges and reds make up the lion’s share of wing-brand color palettes, so I wanted to create something that introduced an unexpected, contrasting and attention-grabbing teal.

Concept 2

Skewing into more familiar territory, this direction relies on a classic color palette and visual cues to feel sporty and approachable. Saucy typography, textures and platters feels appetizing and relates to the product. Contrasting that with silouetted and playful imagery, this direction feels fresh, new and exciting.

Concept 3

For this direction, I was struck by how the sauce colors, mixed with the off-white of ranch and bright pop of celery green, felt very retro and psychedelic to me. I decided to make a pattern with these colors, mixing them all together as sauces do at the bottom of a plate of wings. To contrast this swirly, funky pattern, I created a custom funky but hard-edged geometric logotype. The shapes of the letters could also be used as masks for imagery, creating a stable, architectural grounding against the melting pattern.

Project Snippet - Crack't Breakfast Sandwiches Visual Identity Exploration

During my time at Nextbite, I had the opportunity to develop visual identities for a slew of their virtual kitchen brands. Crack’t is one such brand, and like it’s sister brand Hatch House, focused on the delivery of breakfast sandwiches. While Hatfch House took a more classic approach to their offering, Crack’t was decidedly more experimental and whimsical, offering items like a chicken and waffles sandwich.

This visual identity exploration for Crack’t feeds off that playful energy, turning a retro script typeface into eggs and bacon. A cracked egg is used as the apostrophe, and an illustration system inspired by the logo is used across merch and packaging. The whole thing is tied together with a sunny and funky color palette.

Project Snippet - Hope Road Cafe

At Nextbite, we often partnered with other restaurant companies to help them break into the virtual kitchen space. As part of the pitch process for these potential partnerships, part of my role was exploring what that partnership could look like as a virtual kitchen brand. One such potential partnership was with the Bob Marley House. Below are is a visual exploration for Hope Road Cafe, a concept for a bowl-based virtual kitchen.

Project Snippet - Unused Brand Direction for The Cerulean

The name The Cerulean probably looks familiar. I recently posted another Project Snippet for the same brand, showcasing some of the merchandise I designed for the concept. This is an early exploration of that same brand, one that was a bit more refined and Southern in it’s execution, reflective of the higher-income patrons of the Bay St. Louis area.

Typography inspired by classic boat name handlettering makes up the monogram and the primary logotype. A monoline script is paired with this typography to feel classic and personable. I also chose a relaxed Great Blue Heron as the brand mascot. Native to the area, you normally see these regal birds standing tall over the water or flying with their legs outstretched behind them. Instead, I’ve chosen to show the bird breezily floating along on the water. This bird is mean to represent a more refined local patron taking it easy at The Cerulean.

This small snippet of a visual identity represents the nostalgia of a bay-front seafood restaurant packaged in a contemporary way.

Project Snippet - Chasin' Tails

Back in the day there were some real interesting clients that came through the doors at Vigor. One such client was Happy Endings Hospitality (HEH for short… you may giggle now). They own a few different restaurants, each of them with a suggestive name. Chasin’ Tails is one such restaurant, their Cajun concept, and the OG concept paved the way for the rest of HEH’s brands.

So you may be asking yourself, looking at the logo and supporting marks above… why poker chips? Why have you abstracted a crawfish into a spade? Well, dear reader, it’s because without poker chips Happy Endings Hospitality wouldn’t exist. The founder likes to take risks and have fun, as is obvious by the risque names of the restaurants they own, and initially started HEH with money he had one from time spent in Vegas. So, to pay homage to that story and set Chasin’ Tails apart from other seafood restaurants, I focused on a clean-lined look that would layer easily with gratuitous photos of low-country boils and stand-out among the nautical ship-lap-covered competition.

This little identity system didn’t end up being the final, but I felt there was merit in it and couldn’t let it gather dust on my harddrive.