thefork

Background

In 2007, TheFork embarked on a journey to redefine the way people connect with restaurants. What began as a pioneering online booking diary for professionals evolved into Europe and Australia's leading restaurant booking platform.

Challenge

TheFork has seen huge success, with 55,000 partner restaurants across 12 countries, and 20 million visitors. Yet after a period of rapid growth and extension into new offerings and markets, the brand needed to reestablish their leading presence. TheFork needed to better define and express its brand to build awareness and relevancy with their three audiences: diners, restaurateurs, and employees.

We partnered together to build a visionary brand strategy that would sit at the heart of everything they do and engage their audiences with a bold, contemporary new visual and verbal identity.

Brand Strategy

At the heart of TheFork’s ideology is the belief that, ‘The best things in life happen around the table’. We reflected this through a strategic brand platform that brings people together in an increasingly digitised world, champions restaurant culture and feeds not only people, but the human spirit.

Brand expression

Built around the creative idea, Feed your Spirit, our identity system is based on the energy of people coming together around a table and that energy radiating out.

TheFork symbol sits at the heart of the identity, inspiring the full system from type and graphic patterns to illustrations which were beautifully crafted by Tubik. The symbol is full of personality, capturing the raw energy of the human spirit. Its curves are complemented by Valizas by Luzi Type, a characterful and unique sans serif font.

A palette of reinvigorated greens retains brand equity, whilst a rich complementary palette inspired by different foods, adds impact, flex and variety. This is set against art direction which captures global food experiences with real food and real people connecting.

Tone of voice is a key ingredient of TheFork’s new brand. Language is punchy yet playful, welcoming, passionate and evocative to invite everyone around the table for a beautiful experience fuelled by food and shared connection. A flexible system empowers TheFork’s employees - The Forkies - with application principles to speak to each audience in a distinctive and expressive way.