Reimagining Totally Awesome Subs: A Bold Brand Overhaul
A brand’s visual identity plays a crucial role in representing its essence and capturing the attention of potential customers. While working with Totally Awesome Subs, we identified an opportunity to enhance the brand’s image by creating a more powerful and radical logo that truly embodies the name “Totally Awesome Subs.” The new look was developed with the goal of turning the brand into a national franchise. Although the new logo and branding were not ultimately adopted by the business owner, we are proud of the innovative design and wanted to share the transformative process with our readers.
The Original Logo – A Charming, Yet Limited, Representation
The original Totally Awesome Subs logo was born from a simple and endearing story. In the first weeks of setting up the store, the owner asked one of his employees to draw something up. She loved drawing and would doodle stick figures in various actions, including eating subs. Eventually she created a comic strip of stick figures driving around hungry, finding a sub shop, and eating a sandwich, exclaiming, “Oh so tasty!” While the stick figure design added a touch of charm to the logo, it fell short in representing the brand’s full potential. Given the name “Totally Awesome Subs,” we felt that the logo needed to be more powerful and evoke a stronger emotional connection.
Setting Out to Capture the Essence of Totally Awesome Subs
Our goal was to create a new logo that captured the essence of “Totally Awesome” and appealed to a broader audience. We sought to incorporate a powerful look that would not only resonate with customers but also make a bold statement about the brand’s identity. We also wanted a retro look to align with the interior vibe of the store, where the walls are covered in rock memorabilia and rock music plays throughout.
Introducing the New Logo – A Totally Awesome, Retro Hippie
The new logo features a smiling, retro hippie with a long beard, patterned bandana with flowers and peace signs across his forehead, and glasses. The words “Totally Awesome Subs” are perfectly placed into his beard using a unique font. We chose a color palette of purple and gold, along with light tan for the skin and white for the teeth and eyes. The resulting design represents a happy, retro, totally awesome dude who would undoubtedly serve up some delicious subs.
Bringing the New Logo to Life on Brand Materials
To showcase the new logo in action, our designer created a range of branded materials. The sub paper design features a pattern of the logo alternating with the name of the shop. We also designed three soda cups: a white cup with the purple logo, a gold cup with the full-color logo, and a white cup with the shop’s name in psychedelic colors. Each of these elements demonstrated the versatility and adaptability of the new logo, creating a cohesive brand identity.
Conclusion
The new logo and branding for Totally Awesome Subs showcased a bold, unique, and franchise-ready identity that could have taken the business to new heights. Although the rebrand was not embraced by the business owner, this project demonstrates our commitment to pushing the boundaries of design and helping clients realize their full potential. We believe in the power of transparency and sharing our creative journey, even when the end result may not be implemented. We definitely had fun with this one and hope you enjoyed it as well.
