Opinion BY Sam Becker

Chicken Now now Chickenow

Chicken Now is a food court franchise that supplies chicken-based snacks for mid-mall snacking. Pentagram Austin, fresh off their recent Popeyes work, has helped them to rename and rebrand their popular (in the Southwest, at least) retail offering. And now for some Chickenow.

Chickenow has a loose identity system with several primary lockups

Chickenow’s new identity features a streamlined chicken head pictogram, clean rounded type and a strict orange-black color palette. These basic design elements have the flexibility to be arranged in different combinations: pictogram and wordmark, pictogram in wordmark and a shorthand rebus expressed in three characters. For such a simple brand, the variety seems to help, though it will probably cause some initial confusion. The transition from Cooper Black to Helvetica Rounded is natural (if predictable). Most importantly, though, the new brand succeeds in conveying very different things than the previous one.

While Chickenow has always prided itself on simple, high-quality ingredients, the old logo had a quirky, low-end feel. The previous chicken head looked more like a lazy eye and sat awkwardly in a black bullseye, which seemed to connote cheap. The new identity is better aligned with their current positioning, which hasn’t changed all that much. Chickenow appears contemporary, healthful and trustworthy. The type is kerned well and the chicken serves as a nice o-substitute. The beak just barely kisses the ‘w,’ adding a little extra dimension.

Chickenow cup, bag and dipping sauce (flavor unknown)

Like so much of Pentagram’s work, the Chickenow identity is stark, typographic and predominantly white. And, like so much of Pentagram’s work, it is simple, clever and iconic. As for the name, I’m a sucker for one-word, concatenated wordmarks like Chickenow, because they’re proprietary, unique and, consequently, easy to Google. Searching for brands like Ziploc, YouTube and jetBlue is a breeze.

Existing and proposed food court interiors. You have to love the small "now" written inside of the larger "now" in their previous logo. Does it get any cheaper looking than that?

The first Chickenow to feature the new design is under construction in Los Angeles. The proposed interior design is a breath of fresh air and imparts a new credibility and vitality to their retail offering. If they can stick to the straightforward, bold interior design, it should be a success.

\n\n

Chicken Now is a food court franchise that supplies chicken-based snacks for mid-mall snacking. Pentagram Austin, fresh off their recent Popeyes work, has helped them to rename and rebrand their popular (in the Southwest, at least) retail offering. And now for some Chickenow.

Many thanks to our ADV @ UnderConsideration Partners