El Harissa

El Harissa is a family-owned restaurant, deli, market, and catering service based in Ann Arbor, MI that specializes in healthy and delicious food inspired by the flavors of North Africa and the greater Mediterranean region. Their recipes and techniques are influenced by the cuisine of Tunisia, Morocco, Italy, Greece, the Levant, and beyond.

The following project is a rebranding proposal for the business that conceptualizes their core values and the warmth that they bring to the local an arbor community. This new identity design project captures the colorful, youthful, joyous nature of North Africa and beyond.

New Identity Plan

This new identity design project will capture the colorful, youthful, joyous nature of North Africa and beyond. It will take note of the cultural influences and symbols that El Harissa has been inspired by while also arranging these qualities into eye catching designs that engage with the community and draw attention to the restaurant.

Initial Logomark Sketches

Initially I started out by sketching some ideas for logo-marks. For the new logomark I wanted to place emphasis on the family-grown story behind El Harissa as a business that was naturally grown from the ground up. In order to tell this story, I decided to focus on utilizing rough brushes. I also played around with hand-drawn writing to offer a personal feel within the logomark.

It was also important to include symbols that were related to the businesses cultural background such as the Fennec Fox which stems from North African and Mediterranean backgrounds. Stylistically, I experimented with ways that the letters within ‘El Harissa’ related to one another by overlaying them and combining them.

Type Explorations

For my type explorations I decided to ultimately focus on the rough typefaces I found such as Handler Rough and Amerio Rough. I became fond of the distressed detail of the Amerio Rough font and the structure underlined structure of Handler Rough. I decided to combine the two, primarily utilizing Amerio Rough and redesigning it through the inspirational structure of Handler Rough. I also experimented with stacking the letters as means of puzzling them together. Additionally, I found the repetition of the ‘S’ to be a structure I could emphasize for its inviting contours.

Combination Mark Explorations

I began to explore ways I could combine my type explorations with culturally symbolic motifs such as tiles, the Fennec Fox, and the traditional pomegranate.

Combination Mark Development

After exploring the different symbols for my logo-mark,
I decided to move forward with the pomegranate. The pomegranate is a major ingredient present within Tunisian dishes. It is a symbol of the North African and Mediterranean culture. Its vibrant color and flavor brings life to the Tunisian world. It offers a great representation of the unity and community that is found within El Harissa.

First Version

The first version included solid shapes and circular seeds. It also was divided by lines which intersected and divided different portions of the pomegranate. This version too closely resembled a pizza,

Second Version

The second version shaped the seeds with tappered ends to better resemble pomegranate seeds. It also disregards the dividing lines to turn away from the idea of slices and devision.

Final Version

The final version incorporates a rough
and distressed texture into the layout of the second version in order to allow the pomegranate to become one with the typeface.

Logo Variations

Style guide

Type

Color palette

The color palette stays true to the symbolic colors of Tunisia. The vibrant red and blue are the main primary colors which are assisted by the bright beige.

The secondary colors are additional colors which are muted and are represenative of the colors within tunisian cusine.

Master Logo

The master logo is a representation of the handmade and personal, tunisian style, family grown restaurant ‘El Harissa.’ The stacking style represents the tunisian styles homes and their communal layering, while the pomegranate represents unity and community, The bright colors offer a sense of the inviting warmth that the restaurant evokes. Lastly, the rough texture and style creates a humanistic feel and conveys sense of the relationship between the restaurant and the natural world.

Exterior Signage

For El Harissa’s exterior signage I wanted to also experiment with the idea of adding the traditional pomegranate as a way to fill up the triangular space.

4’ x 10’

Business Cards

Menu Design

Dessert Menu

4” x 11”

Main Menu

8” x 11”

Webpage and Tech

Laptop and computer website front page

Iphone mobile website

Food Labels

For the food labels i created specialty labels for both the deli items, which are in blue, and the gelateria items which are in red

Food Packaging

The following labels can be either applied as stickers to the items or can be pre-ordered with these designs. They utilize both a circular label and a rectangular label.

Blue Deli Labels

red gelateria labels

circular design