Restaurant Branding: What You Actually Need

A restaurant logo has to survive four very different jobs: a sign read from across a street, a menu read at arm's length, a 200-pixel thumbnail in a delivery app, and a stamp on a paper bag. Design for one and you will redraw it for the other three.

The four constraints, in order of neglect

The delivery app thumbnail is the one most often forgotten and increasingly the one seen most. It is small, square, and sits in a grid beside competitors. If your mark is a wide wordmark, it will be shrunk into illegibility or cropped by the platform. You need a square, icon-first version — and you should test it at the size the app actually uses.

Signage is read at distance and often at night. That means real weight, generous letter spacing, and a version that works in one colour for illuminated or cut-out lettering.

Menus are the one place with room for detail, which is why people design the logo here first. It is the least representative surface.

Packaging is usually one-colour on brown or white board. Anything relying on gradients or fine detail disappears.

What to actually order

• Primary logo, plus a square icon version for apps and social.
• One-colour and reversed versions for packaging, stamps and signage.
• A minimum size stated for each, so nobody uses the wrong one.
• Colour in CMYK and Pantone, not just HEX — you will print far more than you publish.

Two mistakes worth avoiding

Cursive scripts at small sizes. They photograph beautifully on a menu and turn into a smudge in a delivery grid. If you want a script, commission a simplified companion mark alongside it.

A logo that names the dish. "Bella's Pizzeria" with a pizza in the mark is fine until you add pasta. Pictorial marks tie you to a product — the trade-offs are in the seven types of logo.

Packaging and print are both in-house here — see packaging and labels.