01/09/2022
The Brand Tale : EP 3 :
Bangkok Bites x 5
Times fly, Bangkok Bites opened its first door in 2012 in Bondi Beach, by my good friend Shane who is one of my best clients. Followed by Newtown, Martin Place, Cronulla & St Ives which is the latest restaurant.
Happy 10th anniversary to Bangkok Bites & the team!
LOGO STARTING POINT
I remember it was a time when BKK street food was getting very popular and Shane wanted to create an eating place where people can enjoy tasty, freshly cooked food everyday, just like how Thai’s enjoy their street food.
Shane’s got the best eye for the a location, opening the first in one of Sydney’s most hip suburb in Hall Street Bondi Beach..
He wanted to call it ‘Bangkok Bites’, so we started with designing the identity & making sure we have the right look for street food branding.
I designed 3 concepts and the Bangkok Bites written in a lips shape was the chosen one. It was developed to have a spray paint effect to represent an urban street culture.
The ‘Bangkok Bites’ identity – spray painted in a lips shape, represents Bangkok’s naughtiness, its food & street culture. A perfect clue to what customer about to experience. The tagline ‘Notorious street food’ – guides the emotion. I wasn’t sure Shane would go with this concept, because ‘Bangkok’ combined with lips – the perception of the brand could go south very fast if not done well. We set up the brand language correctly to guide the brand to the direction we want.
MENU DESIGN
The brand language developed through the menu design, we started here before applying it to other marketing materials. We put a lot of energy to create this menu because it’s a marketing item customers spend most time with. It helps them to understand the experience and us better. It guides their expectations into the world of ‘Bangkok Bites’ and the food they are going to get.
Menu cover – I really wanted customer to pick up a sense of real the Bangkok street food experience. Like real duck noodles sitting on blue plaid pattern table cloth. The delicious experience complete with its empty bowl on the back cover. (My brother Tanakorn did recce in Bangkok for me) 😄 . Shane gave us the green light.
The cover photos were shot by a photographer Bon Likitchollatarn and it’s been used as menu cover shot ever since.
Menu layout design – The design layout, colours & use of fonts represents the chaotic Bangkok we all know. I designed it with a loose structure. It might be difficult for some to read, but most people survived Just like tourists surviving the real street life of Bangkok 😉 haha.
BANGKOK IS OVER THE TOP - MY INSPIRATION!
There are 29 different fonts used on 36 page menu artwork. Each page layout is very light on using grid and I’ve pretty much broken almost every graphic design rule....I’m sure my teacher wouldn’t be very happy. 😆
Food descriptions are written by my copywriter – describing taste & emotion.
YUMMY PHOTOS
Bangkok Bites brand was developed before the food photographs became an important part of the visual experience. We set about designing the look of the photography dishes and making sure the styling & setting is a key part of the brand.
In styling the food photos, we started with very simple set at the beginning – only the dish & the backdrop. We realised this is soooo much fun...... so we went props shopping! 😆 The shots come to life and are capture the street theme and the dishes look delicious set against these backdrops. There was a lot of concept planning that went on before the shoot too.
Our food photos are a mix of 3 different photographers. They are slightly different in lightings & tone, which fits the delicious chaos concept. The layout is designed to help express each difference.
I’m very lucky to have 3 excellent food photographers as part of my team.
– Oat Vaiyaboon (Hangingpixels)
– Bon Likitchollatarn (Bon Fotography)
– Kay Gergpoom Intapuriya (Memobox)
Each are fun to work with and very good at what they do, very quick with problem solving and their lighting skill is 5 star. They make my life as a creative director a lot easier. These guys are my superheros.
WALL MURAL
The owner Shane curated artists for wall mural. Each mural is designed & represents a different style of street vibe for that restaurant. The wall mural photos are used on menu layout & other marketing elements to create each restaurant’s personality - more toys for me to play with - building the relationship between interiors & marketing materials which I really enjoy. These murals make the identity for each restaurant stronger.
These brand elements are used across website, signage, marketing materials for print & social, takeaway bag, face mask, T-shirt etc.
Bangkok Bites now has a strong fan club. I’m very proud to have helped contribute to it. As the designer of the brand and materials, it’s been one of the most fun rides.
Thanks to Shane & Noi for trusting me to execute the Bangkok Bites brand. Can we design merchandise next? hehehehehe😁
❤️2022
See more projects on www.pepdesign.com.au
