Design both the brand and business model for a new organisation devoted to serving independent and small chain restaurant groups across Canada

Don Eglinski’s background fuses theological symbology, a formal design background, and his own entrepreneurial endeavours. Using a combination of marketing as strategy, archetypes, and semiotic analysis, and ‘Business Model Generation,’ Don identified the all components necessary to build a brand—and thus, a new organisation in service to an entire industry was born. The resulting onliness statement looks like:

The only restaurant consultants
that offers strength through numbers and institutional benefits
for individual restaurants and small chains
in Canada
who lack and/or can’t afford specialised industry skill sets
in an era of razor thin margins and category sameness.

The archetypal profile for the customer in this need state is that of the Innocent, and the consultancy—as with any consultant—must evoke behaviour and action befit the Ruler archetype. What distinguishes this Ruler is that the team is comprised of experienced Heroes from within the industry, recognised here and abroad for their wins in a cutthroat industry.

Taking cues from the Hero and Ruler, with the promise of paradise for the Innocent, the wordmark is both strong and fragile, defined by strokes indicative of the knife or sword, and the repetition of both the kitchen and the Ruler to ensure order is achieved. The logo and corporate identity is juxtaposed by art from the baroque, Spanish bodegón in particular.

To eighty-six something is restaurant slang, meaning to run out of something. Roman numerals were chosen to further evoke the Ruler archetype, and the use of stroke-stroke-strokes for repetition’s sake. Representing many restaurants as a purchasing group, LXXXVI’s tagline reflects the value provided by the organisation to its clients as a group, as well as its own strength as a partner to those in need.