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Coquí Coquí
Restaurant Branding and Touchpoints
One of my favorite things about my Puerto Rican heritage is the amazing and delicious food!
Moving to Jacksonville, I found myself feeling homesick all the time. I found that the element that would bring me back was cooking recipes and eating food that come straight from my cultural background. However, it's hard to find good Caribbean Latin food up in northern Florida. So I thought to myself, why not bring my culinary culture here, to Jacksonville?
Sadly I don't have those kinds of funds to my name yet, but creating a fictional restaurant alongside its branding was the next best thing!
Illustrative coaster designs featuring the coquí frog and the coffe plant, one of our most popular agricultural product in the island.
Logo sketches and comps exploring different visual approaches to concepts and ideas. Mostly surrounding the animal element.
One of the most well-known and beloved symbols to the average Puerto Rican citizen is the coquí frog, the national animal of the island best known for its distinct sound. Because of its beloved status, the brand name and "mascot" was chosen to revolve around the coquí frog. The name "Coquí" is repeated twice in the branding as a direct reference to the frog because it never just "sings" one time.
As for the wordmark element of the logo, inspiration was directly taken from the beautiful and colorful houses found in the streets of Old San Juan, a staple of one of the many places to see in Puerto Rico.
An element I really wanted to bring into the branding and environmental design is the imagery of the colorful houses. Throughout the branding, the image of these colorful buildings is used throughout a lot of branding materials and touchpoints. For example, I illustrated and designed an outdoor mural to go along with the external environmental design, conveying the feeling of a welcoming and colorful neighborhood. Windows are open wide to give a sense of welcoming.
An indoor mural was designed as well. To be consistent with the restaurant experience, a more "closed-in" illustration is designed. It's now dark and there's a great big party going on, inciting the guest to come join, sit down, and have a good time.
The menus heavily integrate the colorful buildings as well. Using the buildings to create a three-column structure and easily dividing or categorizing the different food items offered at Coquí Coquí. The audience for the restaurant wishes to invite citizens with and without Hispanic cultural backgrounds, so menus accommodating to both English and Spanish speakers are provided.
