Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A has a legacy of extra-mile service. You can taste it in their chicken, feel its warmth in friendly smiles, and see its dedication in restaurant cleanliness. Their brand identity carries significant intangible weight, but visual cues are also integral to their business.

The Challenge

Each local Chick-fil-A restaurant is tasked with continuing their brand legacy and simultaneously exists in a local context. These contexts have distinct customs, nomenclature, expectations, and regulations. Adapting the corporate identity at the store level is, therefore, very important to address.

In 2017, Chick-fil-A Wake Forest grabbed contextualization by the horns. They casted a vision for what a local expression of the Chick-fil-A brand should look like and summarized it with the acronym INSPIRE: intentionally nurturing and serving PEOPLE, investing for results and excellence. While conceptually sound, this vision still needed a visual cue for stakeholders to remember it by.

Inspiring Applications

The first task was to develop a vision logo that supported the main Chick-fil-A brand. To do this, the current style guide’s typeface was used to spell out the word INSPIRE. Next, since people are at the center of the vision, the letter “P” was placed in a heart at the center of the logo. This gives the brand mark meaning and visual balance.

After the logo was created, we brainstormed several applications to implement the vision. We created lapel pins, banners, and memory cards for the staff.

Continuing the Legacy

Beyond their vision, Chick-fil-A Wake Forest  continues its legacy with on-brand marketing materials. We designed a t-shirt for their 15 year anniversary, created hiring brochures, and took several photos of the team at work to boost morale.