Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 44

Things revolve around hand-drawn logos, animals, bearded tattooed models and other fine European accoutrements.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 42

All Likes stroke my fancy today. Wait… that sounds terrible. But you get the point.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 41

This Friday is all about food and chefs and restaurants. So come on in and please wait to be seated.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 40

Today we are going pattern crazy all up in here with extremely different clients and projects from Switzerland, Singapore, and Africa.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 39

After a two-week hiatus, Friday Likes are back with colorful, somewhat colorful, and almost not colorful at all projects.

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A B-Side BY Armin

O’Charley’s

About: (Est. 1971) “O’Charley’s is a casual dining restaurants chain in the United States, with more than 230+ company-owned locations. O’Charley’s is located in 17 Southern and Midwestern states, including four franchised O’Charley’s restaurants in Michigan, one franchised O’Charley’s in Ohio, three joint venture O’Charley’s restaurants in Louisiana, and one joint venture O’Charley’s restaurant in Wisconsin.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Ed.’s Notes: Had never heard of this place, or, well, these 230 places. The new one isn’t that great but the old one, with the horribly slanted Bookman, was a true horror. Bigger view of the logo and exterior shot of the restaurant below (or after the jump).

Relevant links: Restaurant News Article. Enhanced Online News Article.

Select quote: “The new identity derives inspiration from the approach of Charley Watkins, the man who founded O’Charley’s, and will be encapsulated in the following Watkins quote prominently featured at all O’Charley’s entrances: ‘Everyone who walks through this door is a friend of mine.’ The quote’s attitude will be born out in the new visual identity and updated menu as well as in the welcoming layout and openness of new floor plans which feature different rooms named to reflect its southern heritage such as The Piedmont, The Charles, and The Porch.”

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 37

Today we play two truths and a lie: without reading the text can you guess which Like today isn’t real/implemented? Regardless, all these share simple executions and bold lines. My favorite.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 36

Some really thoughtful ideas today along with strong executions from Paris via London, Australia, and South Africa.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 35

Simplicity is the theme of today’s likes.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 34

A norseman gets sandwiched between two food-related Likes on this Friday.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 32

A burger, a shawl, and a construction company walk into a bar. They end up on Friday Likes. (Man, I need to work on my Friday Like intros a little harder).

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 23

This week I am mining our sister site, Art of the Menu, for some nice restaurant identities. We focus on just the menus over there and plenty of times the identity around the menus is just as cool.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 22

I like it when commonalities emerge between Friday Likes. This time we have lots of black and white and lots of circles from Spain, Mexico, and Russia.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Old Chicago

About: (Est. 1976) “In each of the nearly 100 restaurants, Old Chicago exudes the welcoming appeal of a local neighborhood restaurant. We’re a leader in the traditional casual dining segment, specializing in signature hand-crafted pizzas and a vast craft beer selection served in a comfortable environment.”

Design by: PUSH.

Ed.’s Notes: Click through the link below, plenty of material there.

Relevant links: PUSH case study (in-depth with lots of images).

Opinion BY Armin

Guy Fieri Invades Times Square

Opened this month, Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar is a 16,000-square-foot restaurant in Times Square that sits 500 people and features three separate bars. As the name implies, the joint is owned by Food Network superstar (and national annoyance) Guy Fieri, co-owner of various other restaurants and one of the most popular hosts and personalities of the aforementioned food channel. There is no credit for the identity or interiors and this is for a stand-alone restaurant so it breaks a little bit with my publishing criteria but the project is worth a look.

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Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 15

A sandwich of restaurants with a delicious tennis feeling in this edition of Friday Links.

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Opinion BY Armin

Red Mild Chili Peppers

First opened in 1975 in Dallas, TX, Chili’s Grill & Bar is a casual dining restaurant chain serving what it calls “a variety of Southwestern-inspired, classic American and international tastes” in over 1,500 locations, the majority in the U.S. but with presence in 32 countries. For those who’ve never been into a Chili’s here are the highlights: big menu with lots of times, mediocre to bad food, watered down beer on tap, bad decoration that doesn’t go the full monty with tchotchkes a la TGI, and that’s about it. As far back as October of 2011, a new logo was slowly introduced by Chili’s — which means that I am painfully behind on this one, but better late than never — and in the last eight months about a hundred of the locations have undergone a major remodel with new exteriors and interiors, designed by San Francisco, CA-based Tesser.

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In Brief BY Armin

In Brief: New Domino’s Pizza Logo?

I am posting this somewhat hesitantly because there is just one isolated — yet very legit — mention of it and it’s also why I am only treating it as an In Brief and not a full, official redesign post. This could be big, but it could also just be a local upgrade. The meat of the story is that overnight, the Facebook page of Domino’s Pizza in New Zealand updated its status to announce a new logo that is “going to be integrated across all our promotions and stores in coming months.” There is no detail there or anywhere else about whether this applies globally to the 9,000-plus Domino’ses. My one-sentence, pre-emptive review, pending further details: I like its chunkiness and simplicity, but I miss the packaged-ness of the old one, which sat nicely in a diamond. Link to Google Image Search of the current logo, in case you need a reminder.

Update: Press release issued by Domino’s NZ.

Thanks to Kyle Wadsworth for the tip.

Friday Likes BY Armin

Friday Likes 13

Two thirds of today’s Likes have an Austin connection, which I point out only because I need to fill at least two lines of text in my Friday Likes intros. The other third has to do with Chicago. So there.

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Opinion BY Armin

Meet Don Belisario

Today I am invoking Rule 32, Section C, Paragraph 7 of the Brand New Selection Criteria Guidelines whereby it sort of states that if a project is small or “not mainstream at all” it must have “a very compelling design story.” Located in Lima, Peru, and launched this year, Don Belisario is a restaurant devoted to rotisserie chicken, a popular familial meal in Peru. (And other parts of the world as well; perhaps a lonely meal for a really hungry human being). Designed by local firm and 2011 Brand New Conference fan-favorite, Infinito, the identity for Don Belisario revolves around the eponymous, yet clearly fictitious, hacendado — the Spanish word for the boss, el jefe, of an hacienda, itself the Spanish word for plantation — and patriarch, paying homage to this wonderful food group and its source.

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