Elmwood Creates ‘Foxy’ Branding for Chicken Restaurant, Reys

Global brand design consultancy Elmwood has created the branding for new chicken restaurant concept, Reys.

Having opened its first restaurant this month in Cambridge, Reys is positioned at the higher end of the casual dining sector and is said to be inspired by traditional French rotisserie chicken.

Elmwood was asked to develop the name and brand identity from scratch, and bring this to life across a wide spectrum of touch points including the website, menus and signage.

“The creative was founded on the key insight that Britons eat their way through an astounding 25 million chickens every week. But while Brits clearly love chicken, there’s one creature that loves it more – the fox!” explain the designers.

The brand name needed to reflect both the consumer’s appetite for chicken, as well as founder, chef and restaurateur Neil Nugent’s French rotisserie inspired dining concept. The design team therefore decided to shorten the French word for fox ‘Reynard’ to a more casual ‘Reys’.

“While all aspects of Elmwood’s thinking is inspired by the idea of a fox, the character references are purposely very understated throughout the creative execution. Reys’ tail appears very subtly within the brand marque, and he’s something of an enigma that customers can spot around the restaurant, across various touch-points,” say the designers.

Elmwood also delivered a specific tone of voice piece, with the aim of creating a personality for all brand communication.

“Just as important as the logo, typeface and colour palette, is the way Reys addresses its customers through the written word. This is a crucial component in distinguishing the new brand. We put in place practical guidelines to help Reys achieve an engaging and witty tone of voice – from the message customers see when they book a table, right through to flagging when specific sauces are out of stock,” comments head of verbal identity at Elmwood, Nick Hynes.

Elmwood
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