Vegan, fast food and fashion..say what?

Fashion gurus David and Jakob from Dandy Diary got in touch to help them manifest their latest stroke of creative genius - a vegan fast food in the heart of halal-mecca Neukolln, Berlin. Bear in mind this is 2014 and halal heavy Berlin. For the project I have created the logo, branding, packaging, strategy and website.

Paradoxically obvious logo

The concept for Dandy Diner’s identity is a celebration of the obvious- an happy pig. A pig that is happy as a consequence of the vegan philosophy that likes to keep pigs alive. Rather simple, right?

While researching we were utterly amused by the macabre lie of mainstream logos featuring happy pigs for burger places or steakhouses. I am not vegan, but the paradox is crystal clear. We decided to challenge this visual convention in a creative and unequivocal way.

Flat Pig

Upon nailing the concept, we started jamming with possible visual interpretations of the concept. We drew, sketched, traced and painted a number of exploratory options. We soon realized we had to stylistically set ourselves aside from the conventional cartoon-esque approach. We opted for a flat style that feels modern and elegant.

The mark is the result of a radical simplification of strokes and colours. After many iterations we came up with a mark that is simple, cheerful, modern & digital in line with Dandy Diner’s young audience. Its simplicity and wit makes it memorable and incredibly versatile both for digital, print & beyond (yes, tatoos!).

Custom typography

Whilst crafting the identity for the diner I felt it deserved something more than a standard type to stand out from the crowd. I then set out to craft a custom made logotype to be used both in digital, print and signage.

Simplicity = confidence

The website had to digitally reflect the essence of the venue. We’ve maintained a flat approach, with a focus on extreme simplicity tailored for the diner’s fresh and curious audience. Simplicity to convey confidence. The website does not show any pictures, setting apart from the status quo when it comes to restaurant's websites and hinting at the avant-garde nature of the project.

Elegantly fast

The packaging represented a great design challenge having to merge fast food culture with elegance. It is in this context that the bold colour scheme worked best for us. The meticulous combination of the two primary colours, different sizes and shapes helped conveying a sense of refinement and style.

Public response

After a blasting opening that saw the police having to close the venue for the excessive number of guests attending, people from all over the world came to the diner to enjoy a healthy bite and take the inevitable selfie with the pink vegan pig.

360 degree

For Dandy Diner I was responsible for the branding, packaging, signage, digital strategy, user experience, user interface and website. Tons of learnings. Happiness was hard to contain on launch night.

*I went vegan

For the duration of the project I decided to embrace the philosophy and went on a fully vegan diet. This helped me to better comprehend the vegan ideology and to freak out my poor Italian granma.

In memory of Carl Jakob Haupt

I dedicate this to Carl Jakob Haupt that soon after launching the restaurant was diagnosed cancer and died 3 years later on April 19, 2019. A friend and reference. Time to rest after never resting.