Given the current circumstances hospitality businesses are facing hardships accommodating to the takeaway only option. This can be targeted with design to help improve the new concept of “virtual restaurants”. My Project is a Restaurant branding that focuses on the use of technology and social media to create a takeaway service that acts as a dine in experience for Victorians dealing with strict lock-down rules. The concept I have created for this restaurant is that it is an Asian fusion restaurant with no physical location making it exclusive to a virtual realm. Social media advertisement through platforms such as Instagram and the use of “influencers” acts as major advertisement for the brand. Although Melbourne is now out of lock down, strict rules still apply to the nightlife and this could be a replacement for a night out with more safety precautions.
The branding component for this restaurant came from the term “ virtual” it was important to bring in that look and combine it with the food aspect. The neon light effect paired with bright techno colours helps this look like a fun and enticing brand that will make consumers feel as though they are able to party within the safety of their own home. Small elements such as 8-bit type and computer interfaces and icons have been incorporated to get the “virtual aspect”. The name Presence also comes from a virtual reality term that is used as a reference for escaping to a new reality. The wings were a modernised version of a Asian symbol called the garuda. During the creation of this concept, many people made the comment of the effects reminding them of the film “Blade runner”. I thought this was a great comparison as the scenery of that film offers a world that was pretty far from the reality of the world of the 80s when it was released.
The website is an important deliverable as it is what will bring the effortless delivery experience. When people go out to eat it is usually to escape their usual cooking routine and take a night off. To accommodate to this mindset, I wanted an easy to follow click through menu that would make the process very simple. To make this a little more fun and enticing I used prompts such as “can we start you with any drinks”? and “can we start you with any entrees”? to make it feel more like a dine out experience.
The social media aspect is where the customers would make the decision to order or not. During my research many people said an “aesthetically pleasing feed” is usually a good indication if a company is going to get an order from them. The idea is that bigger accounts such as influencers will be sharing images of their orders and in turn lead others to the presence account which will then lead them to the website. Using actual food images in a cross over with the branding keeps everything appetising and food related
The 3d elements for this is a box that will hold cutlery, reusable straws , placemats, chopsticks and branded cards to help the setup feel more out of home. While designing this it was important to keep the packaging very branded yet simple to show case both food and fun. This led to the illustration and logo being the hero. The second component is a branded reusable cup that will help transport drinks, in particular alcohol. As there is only so many ways to transport these items it was important to keep it looking nice for photos as well as more expensive and well thought out and cared about than just using one use plastic cups. The pattern in contrast is a little less serious and really speaks out to the party aspect more.
The virtual aspect came through more with the cards as they were made to incorporate a little more fun into the brand as well as being a more hands on aspect. In the end this brand was made not only to fit into our new lives but also to bring a little more fun into 2020.