Japanese Restaurant Concept

Tropicana Atlantic City rebranded one of their outlets as a Japanese restaurant serving ramen, sushi, Japanese whiskey and other cultural dishes. The decor in outlet very much alludes to Japanese street art and street food, along with many neon signs. Our department was tasked with first creating a logo and collateral pieces to message the opening. While this was not a very extensive branding project, I ran with the idea of incorporating a Kawaii (the Japanese "cute-culture" of animating and humanizing any and all objects) feel into it.

​

My proposed logo is a combination of a shot/cocktail glass (representing the whiskey) and a sushi sitting on top, along with a small dab of wasabi. To fit the Kawaii aesthetic, I gave it a winking face and a friendly font.

​

Ultimately the client change the name and chose logo in a more traditional brushed font, however the client still wanted to incorporate the street-styles. The collateral I created incorporates the Kawaii faces into the headline, as well as using very bold colors and an all-caps serifed typeface. In my research I found this is how many Japanese street ads are formatted, especially when they are messaging English.