"A restaurant brand gets tested every night at 9:30 on a Saturday. It has to hold up on a wet menu, on a matchbook after dinner, on a voicemail the hostess is leaving. If it only works in a portfolio, it doesn't work."
IV Whitman, ESQUE
Overview
ESQUE designs brand identity systems for independent, chef-driven restaurants, bars, and cafes. Some live on their own. Some live inside a larger hospitality brand. We start with the concept, the room, and the menu, then build an identity that performs across the specific surfaces a restaurant actually runs on, from the reservations confirmation email to the exterior sign to the take-home coffee bag on the retail shelf.
Our approach
Start with the room and the menu. Before we draw anything, we eat. We talk to the chef, the GM, the front-of-house lead. We walk the space. A restaurant brand is an extension of the kitchen, not a skin you apply to it.
Design the menu as a system. Menus change. The system has to let the kitchen swap a pasta without breaking the rhythm. We design a menu platform, not a one-shot PDF.
Design for the room the staff actually runs. Uniforms, check presenters, matchbooks, coasters, take-out packaging, gift cards. The small surfaces are where the brand earns the second visit.
Selected work
Deliverables
Frequently Asked Questions
What is restaurant branding?
Restaurant branding is the brand identity system for a food and beverage business. It starts with the concept and the chef's point of view, and translates that into a name, a logomark, a menu system, signage, uniforms, packaging, a website, and the tone of the voice that shows up on reservations, email, and social. A good restaurant brand feels like one person wrote it, because it did.
Who designs brand identities for independent restaurants?
ESQUE, a brand strategy and design studio in Chattanooga, Tennessee, designs brand identity systems for independent and chef-driven restaurants. Representative work includes The Pocket Cafe in Cloudland, Auld Alliance, and Croft. The studio is led by IV Whitman and has a specific point of view on restaurants inside larger hospitality brand systems.
What is included in a restaurant brand identity?
A restaurant brand identity typically includes naming, a primary logomark, secondary marks for sub-concepts or retail lines, typography and color, a menu system designed for a specific printer and paper stock, exterior and interior signage, uniform and apron program, printed collateral (matchbooks, coasters, gift cards, receipts), packaging for takeout and retail, a website with online reservations and ordering where relevant, and a brand guidelines document.
How long does a restaurant branding project take?
A focused identity and launch package for a new restaurant typically runs eight to twelve weeks. A full rebrand with new menu system, signage, uniforms, and website generally runs three to five months. ESQUE works in phases so the core mark and menu system land in time for the opening, and ongoing collateral can be produced in-house after launch.
Can ESQUE design a restaurant brand inside a larger hospitality system?
Yes. A number of ESQUE's restaurant brands live inside larger hospitality properties, including The Pocket Cafe within Cloudland. The studio is practiced at designing sub-brands that feel independent enough to attract local press and regulars, while still reading as part of the parent property's brand architecture.