Overview

The Springfield Dining Room is one of three Independent Living (IL) dining options within the Eastmont retirement community in which residents can enjoy freshly-cooked meals in a restaurant-like setting.

This project aimed to establish a visual identity for the renamed space (The Springfield Restaurant) as Eastmont elevates its dining options to stay competitive on the retired-living landscape. The target audience for this project consisted of Eastmont residents, almost all of whom are 65 or older.

Process

The process started with asking questions at a team meeting about the history, unique features, and perception of the Springfield Dining Room. At the time, it was going to be renamed to “The West End.”

I then used information from the meeting to outline the tone the brand should have. Local upscale restaurant logos were researched for typographic inspiration, and findings were used to create 3 moodboards, which were voted on by the team.

Afterwards, identity concepts were sketched for two different name options.

After getting feedback on the sketches, the top 12 ideas were digitized and sent for feedback to the team.

I iterated further and presented the ideas at our next team meeting.

The executive director pointed out that the skyline concept was working, but that the solid triangle pointing to the Springfield building felt disconnected from the rest of the logo. Could I point or draw attention to that building in a different way?

Design Justification

The logo emanates warmth and comfort by using colors seen in the dining room: the blues of the chair upholstery, the orange-brown of the area’s wood elements (chairs, pillars, window sills); and it depicts the Eastmont skyline while emphasizing the Springfield building. At the same time, the logo feels sophisticated and elegant by depicting the skyline in crisp geometric lines, and using geometric type and some tracked-out text in a deep, decisive blue.

Challenges

Representing the Space Well

This logo was to feel homey and elevated. In order for the logo to feel homey, I figured something from the dining room should be depicted or hinted at in the logo — but what? I went to the dining room and studied it. I drew what I saw, then simplified it. I asked the department director about how the dining room had changed over time, about which components had been present all along, and the significance of the components. A lot of time was spent sketching and trying stuff out.

Tailoring the Logo with Limited Time. 

Once the logo for “The Springfield Restaurant” was finalized, I was asked to create another version for an alternate name – just in case. This request was made on the last day of my internship, toward the end of the workday.