Nanyang

Nanyang is a South-Eastern Asian restaurant in North Sydney’s Hawkers Village. I was tasked with creating a brand identity to reflect the authentic food they offer. The majority of dishes are Malaysian street food classics and as such research in to the signage found on the streets of Malaysia. This research showed a vibrant DIY style that often sees a few common traits; English and Chinese texts, basic fonts, stretched type to fit areas, a strong use of primary colours with a lot of red and blue text on white and also text made using vinyl cut letters.

The logo consists of an abstract N made from the fresh ingredients along with the Chinese symbols 南洋 representing the name. Three different sizes of logo were created with different levels of detail depending on the use size.

Menus and print item used the styles based on research with lots of Chinese translations in red and English in blue, sometimes reversed out. The type I found in my research mainly uses default Arial and Chinese system fonts, stretched to make the most of the space, this style was adapted for Nanyang. To highlight the fresh produce the ingredients feature throughout as patterns which were cut and stamped by hand.

Neue Haas Grotesk was used for most copy being squeezed and squashed to either fit in or fill space. The Chinese text is set in Lantinghei SC.

Design and direction: Harley Johnston
Intern: Victor Luo
Studio and restaurant photography: Robin Hearfield