Loco Hermanos

Over the past 10+ years in business, Loco Hermanos has become a neighborhood staple. With the restaurants growth and local legendary status, the team at Loco Hermanos wanted to take the show on the road. They were preparing rhe restaurant for a state-wide (and eventually national) expansion, including retail and grocery penetration with some of their best selling green chile and salsa products.

The playbook that worked for a single standalone local restaurants does not scale. The challenge came in 2 parts, each with its own set of unique nuances.

The first piece was the absence of story, and the subsequent application to the verbal and visual brand world. They had used several different disjointed visual identity pieces over the years, with no real story, equity, or brand recognition built up around the brand - something that is absolutely necessary when entering new markets.

The second piece was priming the brand for grocery and retail expansion through some of their most honorable green chile and salsarecipes. How consumers interact with brands and products on shelf is completely different than in a restaurant setting, so we needed to develop a highly-differentiated CPG-focused brand that would unmistakable on-shelf, but also had the ability to flex into each restaurant while delivering on the local charm that made them successful.

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As we worked through the Loco Hermanos story and what makes them unique, we began a deep analysis of their competitive set on the restaurant side, as well as their inherited competitive set the day they show up on-shelf. A clear area of opportunity helped cement their new status within the industry, aka their brand positioning. Retail is a completely different beast, with the warm and fuzzy restaurant experience disappearing. Knowing that constraint, we decided to start with the retail experience.

We unleashed the idea that Loco Hermanos is the spokes in the neighborhood wheel. When spokes meet metal and rubber, magic happens. And just like the baseball card clipped to the wheel, they're here to make the ride unforgettable.

Like a beloved neighborhood bodega, Loco Hermanos was a cultural and community epicenter, and at all costs, that driving force needed to be activated in each and every community it serves.

Knowing the long-term vision for the brand and how we'd keep the small town charm through scale, now the brand needed to sizzle the tastebuds of your eyes, all while competing for attention on a crowded shelf. We brought the community melting pot energy from the restaurant and jarred it up for all to experience. The visual design system was created as a CPG powerhouse, which then informed all brand identity decisions at the restaurant level.

The result is a dynamic identity system that drives distinction and awareness from restaurant to shelf, and shelf to restaurant. We pulled a lot of inspiration from bodega culture, doubling down on the idea that the restaurant is one big community table.

The new brand symbol is a glyph from the calligraphy-inspired logotype, anchoring the Loco Hermanos back to back to take on the world. Our logotype fuses city culture with authentic Mexican script calligraphy. We extended the script into a custom L + H monogram, which is used as a tertiary brand element. The color palette is derived from actual ingredients used in the burritos and salsas, building immediate taste appeal. Piggybacking off of retro bodega signage, the typography system uses bold drop shadows for headline emphasis, with a flash-sheet style visual language that uses iconography and badges. The system is fluid and dynamic, with the ability to be applied across any and every touchpoint, including the future retail packaging architecture.