This project involved Caliente, a Mexican cuisine, new branding it for a specific audience that would be appropriate for a food court in a University. The audience chosen for Caliente is a young nursing student who attends Brigham Young University- Idaho. Lauren, the student, spends long hours on campus, and rarely has time to eat meals. She is stressed and overwhelmed most of the time. The branding for this is envisioned to be energetic, fun, and relaxing. We want students to want to stop by Caliente a few times a week without feeling sick of the same old food, but feeling rejuvenated and healthy. The idea also is that this is a place of quality, but is also fast paced. It can be grabbed on the go, or to stay and relax. The colors, logo, and various applications were chosen to convey these messages, and to be just what Lauren needs to make her day better.
The cactus came to mind because of it’s sharp, pointy personality. The cactus says dangerous and hot without being too deadly. It doesn’t say “on fire spicy,” but rather “has a kick spicy.” This was the feel I wanted for the Mexican restaurant. Of course, there is the option at this restaurant for hot sauce, but mild and medium are options as well. The bright green cactus says it all. It says fresh through the vibrant, organic color. It says dangerous through the needles, and it furthermore reads homemade restaurant with the stamp affect. I felt it needed the stamp affect because of it’s sketched out attributes. The stamp affect adds a rustic and creative approach. To me, rustic and creative are both appealing to the college age student.
Because Caliente is a student centered, energetic, but quality environment, I wanted to find a typeface that reflected this idea. Ribbon is a rustic, but festive typeface that fits the idea of the restaurant as well as the logo very well. The sharp edges of the typeface remind me of mexican party flags, as well as mirroring the sharp needles of a cactus. The thick lines make the name of the restaurant stand out. The dark red, orange color reflects fire and hot spicy things. It is also a complementary color of green, the color of the cactus logo. In addition, Mari&David was used because this typeface is youthful, appealing, easy to read, and just plain fun. It made for good variety and mixes well with several simple, basic typefaces. Mari&David is seen in the menu, table tent, stationary, shirts, and website. It is one of the primary typefaces used in the Caliente branding. Avenir is a solid basic typeface that mixes well, and looks clean and classy. I think it brings a modern edge to the fun, festive typefaces that are already used.