The Works Kitchen
Hire a talented celebrity chef, ☑️. Develop a menu that is equal parts over-the-top as it is delicious, ☑️. Launch a new restaurant concept…
I took a BIG bite with this project.
Make the message savory
**All photos and video for The Works Kitchen done by West Productions
Most of our competitors are known for basic stadium faire. Hot dogs, pizza, beers on tap, and wings. We wanted a spread that built on this foundation, but exceeded expectations and was a bit surprising. We rolled out The Works Kitchen as an eclectic restaurant brand within a brand (GameWorks). The challenge was presenting a whole new brand without departing so far from GameWorks that it felt disjointed. Key Pieces I did:
New Branding and brand standards
Creative Direction
Fresh menu design
Social media content strategy
PR strategy
Cross promotional opportunities
Make it stand out.
Our talented chef invested months developing a savory menu that would stand out amongst our competitors. His concoctions were as delectable as they were visually interesting. It then fell on me to present his work. In partnership with the talented folks at West Productions, I made my vision clear and we developed a visual story for the food items. I was also tasked with branding an in-house restaurant concept that had been dubbed “The Works Kitchen”.
The Branding
It designed a simple logo for The Works Kitchen, and immediately felt that while it met the sophistication of the chef’s culinary confections, it failed to marry a new brand to the excitement, the the irreverence, and the youth of the GameWorks brand. So I built a visual plan around the logo I had designed. By allowing the logo to be partially covered with food images, I placed the product in the forefront and gave visuals more layers. I then added tightly kerned typography to the mix which was used on the new menu and on visual content. Using a combination of gorgeously shot imagery, the bright colors of the overlapped text, and the multiple layers of all visuals, we accomplished the goal of marrying The Works Kitchen to the GameWorks brand.
The Menu
Once the chef developed a complete menu, it fell on me to design a new menu for guests. It needed to be sophisticated like the food, but FUN like the GameWorks experience. We pumped up the color, employed our new signature overlapping letters. The challenge was a layout that made sense for guests while still placing high margin menu items in premium real estate. Over time, as we gained more insights on item popularity, the menu went through multiple iterations to either highlight struggling items, or push harder on more popular items.
Social Strategy
We leaned HEAVY on visual content for social posts. Using slow-mo video overlaid with our signature typography, we grew our audiences, and broke up our editorial calendar with fresh messaging.
