Fresh food from the ground up
Marko is a new plant-based and sustainability focused diner in South Melbourne, serving up local, all-natural food. Think HQ was tasked with building a unique brand identity for Marko and establishing a presence across both social and traditional media.
The brief for Marko was pretty straight-forward: make a plant-based casual dining experience feel cool and modern, but comfortable and friendly at the same time. The client didn’t want to especially highlight the vegan aspect of their offering – they wanted to welcome newbies to plant-based eating with delicious food that also happens to be animal-free. Ingredients are fresh, locally sourced and whole.
I was the sole designer on this project, taking the client's brief and leading them on a journey through suggested directions, visual concepts, and design development. As with any restaurant, there were multiple visual assets designed, ranging from menus, t-shirts, signage, social tiles, and of course the all-important website. I also created a comprehensive photography styling brief to guide our food stylist and photographer, as well as art directing the hero photography shoot.
The Marko visual identity was inspired by the concept of “Food Nostalgia” — a nod to the days where fresh, locally-grown produce was not a luxury, but a way of life. The Marko logo itself is inspired by vintage type, with its slight imperfections and idiosyncrasies. Vintage motifs such as sunbursts, tablecloth checkers, and lozenge shapes are referenced throughout. We keep things feeling modern with bright pops of colour and a playful sensibility. Bright, primary colours evoke summery, Mediterranean freshness… a region renowned for its fresh food diet.
The Marko “look” is casual and unfussy: it strives to be modern and fun, but also warm and welcoming. We don’t scream “vegan” or try too hard to be cool. We aim to strike a balance between visual consistency and playfulness: the logo is not sacrosanct — we allow its format to be tweaked and experimented with to create fun new variations that are particularly suited for use on merchandise or stickers.
If you're interested in seeing some of the development work behind the Marko brand, take a look here.
CREDITS: I worked on this project as an employee of Think HQ
