Pho Than Brothers
Brand Guide Book
Timeline: 12 Weeks
My Roles: Branding, Layout, Art Direction
Teammate: Minjung Yoon
Tools: InDesign, Illustrator, XD, Photoshop
Current Branding
Background
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In 1996, the inaugural Than Brothers restaurant found its home along Aurora Avenue in the northern reaches of Seattle. At the time, it stood as a pioneering establishment in the north Seattle region, introducing the delectable flavors of Pho to the local community. As the years passed, their enterprise flourished, and they ventured forth to establish multiple locations throughout the Seattle area. With a bunch of new dining destinations gracing the vicinity, the time had come for Pho Than Brothers to undergo a re-brand, one that would breathe fresh life into their brand while preserving the cherished authenticity and relaxed ambiance that patrons have come to cherish.
Goals
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To capture the authentic and casual feel of the Pho Than Brothers brand, we created a new and fresh visual identity approach for their restaurants throughout the many locations they own. We also wanted to represent their longevity in serving the Seattle community and setting them apart from other competitors.
Process
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To start the rebrand of Than Bros Restaurant, we needed to figure out who they were and who they were not. We began with researching their history, current brand identity, audience, and competitors.
We chose three words describing the look and feel of the company. And then started looking for photos that best described each word. We drew a diagonal line from corner to corner of a whiteboard. From the start of the line it said, “WHO WE ARE” and the end of the line saying, “WHO WE ARE NOT”. Once that was done we started to place photos in those areas. By doing so we were able to find the direction of our visual tone.
As we dug deeper into the history of Than Bros. We also came up with a tagline that best describes the special pho that has been served throughout these years. “Momma’s Comfort in a Bowl” which represents mom’s secret pho recipe that was passed down to her children who now run each restaurant.
We visited the Capitol Hill location to see and feel the atmosphere of the restaurant and interviewed employees. We asked the employees and managers with three simple questions. What are the usual patrons that come through here and dine? Are each restaurant’s exterior and interior the same? And do you have employee shirts? From our compiled research and answers. Our team defined Than Brothers’ identity in three words that came up often during the interviews.
As a team. We placed colored dots on certain images we felt that best describes Pho Than Brothers tonal feel. Each team member had different colored dots. And whichever pictures had the most dots would make it to the next round called WHO WE ARE and WHO WE ARE NOT.
Continued dot session
WHO WE ARE to the left and WHO WE ARE NOT to the right. We placed the pictures with the most dots in the left section and the other photos with fewer dots in the right section. This exercise helped us as a team to figure out our tonal territories aka our recipe to success.
As we sifted through our images we then again went through another brainstorm session and tried to find the best fitting words that describe the photos. We came up with Authentic, Casual, and Convenient.
Brand Concept
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The concept combines the authentic and casual tonal territories to represent Than Brother’s brand quality. The faded textures from the old buildings and objects are used to represent the authenticity of the restaurant and the history of their 26 years of experience.
Brand Colors
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Than Brothers’ colors represents the casual aspect of the restaurant. The warm and welcoming vibe is visualized with bright orange and warm blue with a highlight of light cream color.
Brand Mark Design
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For Than Brothers, we developed a brand mark that represents the authentic quality of their restaurant and food with hand-drawn typography in an organic rough-edged rectangle background. We used stems of letter H in “PHO” to portray the noodles of the pho and added two lines on top that represent chopsticks, visually attracting audiences to get an idea of the Than Brothers as an appetizing restaurant.
Than Brothers' colors represents the casual aspect of the restaurant. The warm and welcoming vibe is visualized with bright orange and warm blue with a highlight of light cream color
