Rebranding: The Restaurateur Club

The importance of differentiation and creating noise in an otherwise saturated marketplace through rebranding and repositioning.

The Restaurateur Club in its inception began as a club for those aspiring to become professionals in the restaurant industry with events centered around talks from small business owners and operation tours of the most successful restaurants in New York City. However, over the course of the years, the club’s founders graduated and along with the founding members graduated the mission and vision of the club. No one seemed to embody what the club meant nor did anyone want to carry the torch.

The club is something of an anomaly—a mystery if you will. Only present in the minds of the student body when the word free or complimentary are included in a promotional flyer. People came for the free food more so than the event itself. It came as no surprise when half of the attending student body couldn’t pronounce the word Restaurateur. We simply weren’t doing our job correctly. I had the opportunity this year to become a part of the executive board and volunteered to lead the design efforts of the club.

There is a strong sense of responsibility in me to resurrect this club as I, too, am an aspiring restaurateur. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and is a reason why I’m studying Hospitality and Management at New York University. I come from a family already engrossed in the restaurant industry and spent many of my high school years working for my father’s restaurants and experiencing first-hand the responsibilities within the back of the house and the front of the house. Designing and creating brands is a passion of mine and I started early in high school by founding Business Preparation Club.

With the rebranding of The Restaurateur Club, I specifically honed in on three keywords: simplicity, versatility and modernity.

Simplicity: is the logo representative of the club in a nutshell? is it able to say much without saying much? in an ever-crowded marketplace, simplicity is of utmost importance. it cuts the unnecessary noise and enables a brand to stand out.

Versatility: in other words, when the size of the logo is enlarged or even minimized, are we still able to identify the logo? is it able to be used across multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest?

Modernity: is the logo fresh and original? is it clean-cut and is the typography used representative of the modern era?

I’m a sucker for circular logos. It’s simple and versatile. It’s an effective benchmark to test versatility and simplicity as circular logos are able to be maximized or minimized at will. Furthermore, it creates boundaries or rather a canvas to work within. With these three concepts in mind, I designed the brand identity for The Restaurateur Club. Below are what resulted…

Designed on Squarespace’s platform, the new website enables the addition of multiple site administrators and encourages group collaboration. Stripped down and bare, the simple, clean and functional look is user-friendly and fully navigational.

I retained the motto of The Restaurateur Club “We don’t eat to live, we live to eat.” I then applied this design to a clean black slate. Again, this keeps in consistency with our three keywords: simplicity, versatility and modernity.

To keep our branding consistent, the Facebook page has been updated as well with the club motto as its cover photo and the circular cross logo as its page profile photo.

To finish off the rebranding process, an entirely new business card has been designed as well. This helps us to build relationships with industry professionals and adds to the professionalism of The Restaurateur Club.

Thanks for reading.