For the remainder of the world, Canada is synonymous with a number of issues – maple syrup; Celine Dion; healthful, typically good folks; Neil Younger; and on the subject of the realm of meals, poutine (fries with cheese curds and gravy, for the uninitiated).
Having opened again in 1969, Ashton is the oldest poutine chain in Canada. With 23 branches in Quebec, it’s change into one thing of an icon within the sloppy chips area; however that had change into a little bit of a double edged sword – the ‘model’s picture and eating places have remained frozen on this period’, as LG2, the Montreal, Toronto and Quebec-based inventive company that just lately overhauled Ashton’s branding places it.
In 2022 Ashton’s chain of eating places was acquired by entrepreneurs Émily Adam and Jean-Christophe Lirette, who had a imaginative and prescient to develop the chain past its Quebecois dwelling. The brand new possession led to the branding shakeup, with LG2 introduced in to assist reply to various fairly vital challenges. One thing needed to be carried out to handle Ashton’s stagnated gross sales, outdated restaurant ideas, and its ageing clientele. The brand new branding needed to work in the direction of bringing within the youthful audiences that the chain had traditionally struggled to draw, and take a newly expansive method that would assist Ashton attain past its historic locale.
‘The model wanted some new life’, says LG2, which labored throughout Ashton’s technique; branding and visible id; structure; content material; and adverts. All the idea regarded to replace the Ashton expertise, making a extra modernised entire model world whereas sustaining its established traditions and heritage.
A look on the former brand design reveals simply how dated issues have been: the previous brand has the odd typographic quirk of capitalising the ‘T’ in addition to the ‘A’, in a typeface that’s a bizarre mixture of utilitarian stencil type and blocky serifs – it’s not fairly certain if it’s playful with its contrasts of thick and skinny letterforms, semi-joined-up stylings et al, or quite severe with its sturdy serifs.
One other peculiarity of the previous branding is the best way that the wordmark is housed in a lockup that appears extra like the form of a burger than something to do with poutine. And besides, that burgerish form is partly shaped with a scripty cursive ‘chez’ weaved into it. Maybe all of it made sense as soon as upon a time, however it’s onerous to make out what’s occurring with all of it now, in 2024.
In a wise transfer, LG2 appears to have learn from the playbook of some of the talked about redesigns of latest years: JKR’s graphic design community-beloved Burger King rebrand, which stripped all the pieces again, flattened all of it out, and raided the model’s historical past to take all the pieces again to a cutesy 60s-leaning vibe with the Cooper Black adjoining customized font Flame Daring.
Certainly, the brand new Ashton wordmark doesn’t fall removed from that Cooper Blackish look, and duly ticks the field of all too many latest rebrands in making the entire thing lowercase, regardless of Ashton being not simply the model identify (a correct noun! Which must be capitalised!) but in addition the identify of the chain’s founder, Ashton Leblond (which actually actually must be capitalised!)
The wordmark, which makes use of bespoke typography that’s admittedly very charming, is accompanied by some nice fonts: Suisse Int’l by foundry Swiss Typefaces (based on LG2, a nod to the ‘ubiquitous changeable plastic letters of outdated diner menus’) and Tusker Grostesk by Tallinn, Estonia-based foundry Lewis McGuffie Kind.
Leblond ended up inspiring the brand new model in additional methods than nominally. His first restaurant enterprise was known as the Ashton Snack Bar, and a variety of the brand new ‘visible codes’ have been immediately knowledgeable by ‘snack bar tradition’. That comes by within the three stripes, which have been used within the former branding however have change into extra slick and modern by emphasising curves quite than strict geometries; whereas the traditional diner shades of purple and yellowish-gold-brown have been made extra vibrant and daring.
As such, there’s greater than a contact of nostalgia right here, however it doesn’t really feel too tacky (‘scuse the pun) or pastiche-retro: the brand new id is recent, enjoyable and strikes the right stability of referencing Ashton’s historical past whereas wrenching it firmly into the longer term. Essentially the most nostalgic/backward-glancing touches are reserved for particular touchpoints: the brand new model merchandise (socks, tees, shirts, and so forth), which options illustrations created to appear to be one of many earliest Ashton logos.
The packaging and wrapping is without doubt one of the most placing parts of the brand new branding: completely stripped again to its easiest parts purple, white, and the typographic Ashton wordmark), the drink cartons, burger paper and fries containers present a confidence within the energy of the model’s elementary parts.
Seeing the model throughout these smaller touchpoints and the way it extends into your entire bodily expertise – the wall graphics, signage and even the structure itself, which makes use of the graphic curves and colors to sensible impact, could be very spectacular. The phrase ‘model world’ will get bandied about an terrible lot, however right here it’s realised in maybe its most literal type – and LG2 has carried out a extremely sensible job of it.