OUGD504: Comma American Diner Branding & Identity Development

For the invitations, I wanted to create something which was iconic and eye-catching. The purpose of these invitations was to inform locals and raise awareness of the new opening of Comma American Diner. The secondary purpose was to persuade and encourage young adults, couples, families and large party groups to come to the restaurant opening night. As a persuasive feature, I included a possible chance of winning a free burger with the presentation of the invitation.. like a gift or coupon.

In terms of design, I kept the invitations consistent with the menus, using only Futura, Brush Script MT italic, and the colour scheme red, white and blue. The female character was placed on the back of the invitations, with a speech bubble quoting 'You're Invited!' This speaks directly to the reader, 'you' applying to everyone - encouraging as many people as possible to get involved with the new American Diner. 

These invitations would be handed out in the same manner as bulk flyers posted to everyone within the area. By including minimal information (a short description, an instruction, and the address) the invitation reveals minimal information, but teases the reader into (hopefully) wanting to find out more.. and to do this they would be required to visit the diner themselves. 

Below is a range of examples of the invitation variations. I wanted each invitation to be unique, making the customers feel special. In reality, if these were printed in mass production, it would be highly unlikely that this would be possible and they would be printed repeatedly as a series. However, for the submission, I was only planning to process 8-18 invitations so I wanted to show different designs for each. 

Each invitation was kept the same, the only changes I focused on were the background line styles and thickness. A few of my experimentations are shown below..

Using InDesign, I was able to line the invitations up. Originally I was working in an A4 document 

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Business Cards

As a small extra for customers to take away with them, I created small business cards including the key contact information. The main elements I wanted to include were:

-- Logo --

-- Restaurant Name --

-- Short description --

--Where to find us --

-- Contant info --

OUGD504: Design for Print & Web Menu Development

For my food and drink menus, I wanted to initially focus more on the design and layout of each menu as opposed to the content. Therefore, to get a good idea of how my menu would look, I used an existing American Diner menu and copied their dishes/beverages. 

Firstly, I thought to use JB's American Diner in Brighton's menu. After visiting this restaurant in the summer, I thought their range was appropriate for my restaurant. 

During the process of typing up the JB's menu, I remembered Ed's Diner - one of my personal favourites. I have been to Ed's Diner a couple of times, and I really liked the atmosphere and general feel of the restaurant. I remember the experience being unique due to the food, restaurant layout, and also the fun extras such as a jukebox system for anyone to use. Ed's Diner also uses fun language and tactics to provide a relaxed, friendly and engaging atmosphere. Therefore, I felt more inclined to use their menu instead..

I wanted the menus to follow the same colour scheme as my logo. Therefore I created these with the same colour values I had previously been working with. 

Another element which was crucial when forming the identity of my menus and general branding was the choices of font. As I originally had been working with Bebas Neue, I began using this for the menu sub-headings. 

For the individual food options, I wanted to find an italic font which followed a similar style to the JB's menu. This lead me to find the Brush Script MT Italic font which was ideal. For the body copy, I chose to use American Typewriter. Not only was the name relevant, it also worked nicely against the Brush italic. This is shown below..

Main Menu

Below is the the finished first menu design. As development, I changed the Bebas Neue typeface to Futura Condensed ExtraBold. This worked more effectively than the Bebas Neue as the weight was heavier and the typeface generally stood out more noticeably, without losing any legibility. As an additional feature, I added a simplistic striped effect on each side of the menu. This was then repeated to a smaller scale around the menu heading to add a three-dimensional element. 

Although I was pleased with this outcome, I was aware that it was difficult to find an appropriate place to put my comma character. During feedback in the final print and web crit, it was suggested that I should get rid of the current logo, and replace it with the character instead. It was also suggested that the menu heading's three-dimensional element was distracting as the rest of the menu content was two-dinentional.. The menu design therefore needed re-visiting, with a clearer, more logical layout. 

Below are two close-up screenshots of the heading design. Adding 'American Diner' gave the logo a big more authenticity, another feature I wanted to keep consistent through my design.

Development of the main menu required attention to detail when lining the options up. In order to do this precisely, I used ruler guides (shown below). This was also a useful way to ensure each page of my menu corresponded with the others. By all of the pages next to one another in InDesign, I was able to line up the menu heading, start point of the menu, and the spacing between food/drink options and headings.

In the main menu (displayed below), the vegetarian option was introduced. For this, I used a bright shade of green as a clear, well-recognised indication. As this was the only use of green throughout the Comma design, it was easy to understand, and instantly noticeable to vegetarians looking specifically for these options.

Drinks & Desserts Menu

For the drinks and desserts, I wanted to design individual menus. I kept the design consistent with the previous main menu through colour, type and layout. I kept the drinks menu at the same size as the main menu (A4). For the desserts menu, as there was only a small range of options, I designed it to be half the size (double-sided) so A4 folded in half.

Kids Menu 

A smaller menu, A5 sized. This was designed as a mini menu for 'mini commas' - a nick name for Kids eating/drinking at Comma. This adds emphasis to the welcoming nature of the Diner, embracing all ages and families.

The next stage of menu development was to prepare it to be effectively printed double-sided. I also thought the menu itself still looked a bit bland, and would benefit from a busier background or stock. This was when I referred back to the female Comma character I previously created. I thought this would work perfectly on a smaller scale in a large quantity.

I thought it would become too repetitive, and unimaginative to simply use the same one character continuously. I wanted to design a range of other characters, based on this one, to work as a group. I created these in a similar manner to the original character, using Illustrator.

In order to follow the broad audience I was aiming my Diner towards, I thought it was essential to generate a male character too. 

The final eight characters are shown below - male and female. I was pleased with these, although, I found it difficult to make the males as masculine as I would have liked. However, by adding a small white line to generate a quiff, and changing the lip colour to a pale pink, I was relatively happy with the icons.

The characters looked good on the menus, however they were too bold, distracting from the menu itself. To resolve this, I lowered the opacity to 50%. This was much more appropriate, and I decided to keep it this way.

As the final development of my menu, I re-visited the logo design, & menu headings. Through my own decisions, with support and suggestion from others, I came up with the new design shown below. 

The new heading slightly resembled the Pepsi logo, with a bold use of red, white and blue. This layout was far more legible, bold and clear. The scales were more logical, allowing for the logo to feature the Comma female character with the Brush italic type. This was then grouped together in InDesign and placed onto each menu accordingly.

Final Design for Print & Web Crit

We were placed in into groups and and asked to present our final ideas/concepts to each other. This was our final opportunity before the module hand-in to receive feedback from our peers. As I had changed my restaurant from Greek to American, I had only had time to develop a logo, colour scheme, typeface, and a mockup main menu. I received a really useful amount of feedback regarding strengths, areas for improvement and considerations.

Strengths:

• The colour scheme is relevant.
• Keep the tone of voice cheesy - go all out.
• The concept is brilliant and well thought out.
• Use the logo of the Woman throughout.
• Make it enthusiastic

Areas for Improvement:

• Try using more typographical experiments.
• Use slogans, play on words.
• Take photos as proposals.

Considerations:

• Mock-up posters of collaged photos for inside the restaurant. 
• 'Old Lady Commas' for one of the logos. Develop the character - try experimenting with facial expressions / create a range of characters.
• 'Please Comma'gain' play on words
• Design dinner trays (grease proof paper), pins for uniforms, milkshake bottles / salt&pepper shakers in Clas Olsen.
• Play with the character, develop her role.
• Add a subtle yellow or food colours.
• Research into American slang to include.
• 1950s American style diner.
• Propose wallpaper/1950s stars James Dean & Marilyn.

Design For Print & Web: Logo Development

Once I was happy with the name 'Comma' for my restaurant, I began to think about what type of cuisine I wanted my restaurant to be. My first instinct was to research into the origins of the word 'comma' itself. I discovered that the word derived from  'Koptein' - Greek for 'cut' this then became 'komma' - a greek word meaning 'piece cut off, short clause'. As the word obtained Greek origins, I thought it made sense to focus my design around Greek cuisine. 

For the initial developments of my logo, I wanted to keep the design minimal. The key elements I wanted to include were: 

-- A comma - text as image

-- Clear restaurant name

-- Colours of the Greek flag: white & blue

-- Possibly incorporate Greek designs

One of the first logo attempts is shown below. Although it included all of the elements I considered essential, I found the outcome dull and lazy. The image below was created using Didot for both the large comma and also the Restaurant name.

As an experiment to create a more interesting logo, I began drawing vector lines to resemble Greek designs. I kept to the blue and white colour scheme as I thought the white worked nicely as negative space in contrast to the blue.

I also tried a few experiments using a circle for the logo as shown below.

The pattern I created was appropriate to the restaurant concept due to its Greek-like aesthetic. I also liked the subtle way the beginning of the spirals resembled small commas.

After deciding the logo worked best as a comma shape, I began implementing and re-sizing the spiral pattern to see how it looked at an alternative size. 

I wanted to keep the text as legible as possible as this would need to be easily read on a wide range of media and scale. One of my attempts to enhance legibility was to include a white strip dividing the text from the background surrounding the restaurant name. This proved to be effective and allowed to me to focus on editing the type to its best potential. 

Below is an image of where I attempted to create my own comma 'tail' in Illustrator. However, the outcome was not as effective as the original comma.

As a result of this, I returned back to my original idea and tried to keep the logo as minimal as possible. I experimented with different combinations of both the plain blue, white and occasionally also the pattern effect. 

As development at this stage, I also decided to change my typeface. The new font I found (shown below) was from dafont.com I liked the bold, yet narrow character of this typeface. It was also clearer and therefore more legible (particularly capitalised) which was another key reason to continue with this typeface instead of Bodoni.

For the final logo (shown below), I kept a small gap above and below the Restaurant name to increase the legibility. The logo is simple, but includes subtle symbolism of a sanwhich/ burger filling. The logo also represents 'taking a break' due to its white bar breaking up the Comma image. I have used blue and white to resemble the colours of the Greek flag. This colour scheme, along with brown paper will ideally be used throughout.

I then began thinking about how this logo could work across a broader spectrum. 

Possible website pages - in no particular order.

These were to potentially work as buttons for my website. Although the concept was evident, clear and self-explanatory, I wasn't sure this logo was going to work as effectively on a smaller scale. This was due to the text becoming very small in comparison to the logo itself.

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After thorough thought about my previous decisions, I had started to become less keen on a Greek restaurant and felt more drawn towards working with an American Diner instead. After speaking to a few of my Peers about this, they all agreed that there was more scope to work with if I were to go down the American diner route. 

I noticed that the logo itself already subtly resembled a burger - the type being the the burger filling. This was a fun and appropriate aesthetic to the outcome I was now aiming for. The logo also reminded me of Pacman, who conveniently eats his way to winning.. just like a burger would be something to celebrate eating in an American Diner.

As I was now working with an American aesthetic in mind, the first consideration I took into account was the incorporation of red. This simple but striking addition was the perfect addition to the previous blue and white. The task was then to get the ideal balance of red, white and blue (the colours of the American flag).

To extend my idea further, I wanted to see what the comma would look like placed opposite another comma. I imagined it to form a heart shape. 

The outcomes are shown below. Although the heart shape was not particularly noticeable or effective, it was enough to deliver the concept of love, without losing the comma image. With this, I began thinking about 'Dinner for Two' and 'Two Can Dine' concepts. This was to be aimed at couples looking for a special two-course meal, adding something special to an occasion. The designs I constructed in Illustrator are shown below..

Originally, I worked with type, keeping the commas as the only form of 'type as image'. However, over time i started to notice the face-like shape which had been formed from placing the commas together in this manner. One of my peers also noticed the resemblance of American road signs. These were all beneficial bonuses for justifying my design choices. This inspired me to experiment with designing a woman figure through experimentation with facial features. A few of these are shown below. 

The image above (left) was the character I was most pleased with. Not only was she constructed purely from two commas, the heart shape still remained, and theres was also the underlying bonus of a reference to American road signs. In order to define the hair, and to add a slight three-dimensional element to the character, I used a lighter tint of the blue for the right-hand comma. I was really pleased with this outcome, and decided to continue using this throughout the rest of my design processes.

At this point, I had not considered using the female comma character as my logo, as I was still considering my previous design. I wanted to somehow incorporate the two together. However, after presenting my logos to a group of my peers in our final print and web crit, it was suggested that this would work better as a logo. The character received a really positive response from the group. This caused me to realise the impact that this could have as a logo, and I was keen to push this further to form a strong sense of branding and identity.