Boneshaker
Located in the heart of the city, Boneshaker has been the most popular donut shop in Paris, France since opening its doors in 2015. Created by American pastry chef Amanda and her husband Louis, their coffee and desserts play on American flavors with a refined French approach. With growing competition and new business opportunities arising, I was more than thrilled when Boneshaker approached me to help overhaul their visual identity.
The Brief
After having bootstrapped the visual identity themselves in 2015, Amanda and Louis wanted Boneshaker’s image to finally convey the same level of quality and personality which they put into their donuts and atmosphere — Boneshaker is all grown up now and they wanted the visual identity to reflect that. With more and more donut shops arriving in Paris, they also needed a strong visual brand to help set them apart. The timing for this project was perfect as they prepared to expand into a second location.
The Solution
Amanda, Louis and I collaborated to find the right mix of elements which conveyed the image they’d always dreamed about. In our efforts to have Boneshaker feel different than other Parisian donut shops, I created a visual language which feels playful and bold, keeping with its rough-around-the-edges approach and its urban Parisian roots. A 360-degree application of their new look was created, including everything from takeaway food packaging and merchandise, to a website facelift, social assets and consulting on their new shop’s design.
Expertises
Branding
Visual Identity
Art Direction
Logo Design
Print, Digital
Social Media
Packaging
Retail
Credits
Photography: Eileen Cho
Architect: Atelier Moore
Sign Painting: Morel Enseignes
The Logos
Boneshaker’s new logos take a modular approach in order to provide flexibility — a client request as their original logo was often times difficult to use depending on its application. The use of a geometric sans-serif typeface with some custom letters helps the primary logo to feel bold, unique, and modern, just like Boneshaker’s approach to donuts. The hand-painted letter B. provides an easy-to-recognize human touch, allowing Boneshaker to declare its position as the leader in Paris donuts.
We changed the spelling of “Donuts” to make it easier for French speakers to pronounce, and added “Coffee” to clarify Boneshaker’s offering. These two words were visually separated from the name in order to anticipate the coming expansion of their brand architecture. #teaser
Type & Colors
In a nod to classic punk rock greats like the Sex Pistols, Rancid and Blondie, the color palette utilises pink and yellow accents — the hot pink carried over from the previous logo to create some continuity.
The bold, hand-painted typography acts as an illustrative element and helps add a human feel to the identity.
Graphic Language
Creating a rich, visual language was key to this rebrand after the original identity was lacking in variety due to it consisting of plastering one logo everywhere.
With 80s punk rock aesthetics still in mind, visual elements were juxtaposed to create patterns and textures. An almost imperfect, handmade aspect was added with torn paper edges and cropped logos.
Branding, visual identity, art direction, design, print, posters, digital, social, logo creation, badges, retail, packaging, cups, boxes, sack, business card, coffee mug, t-shirt, apparel, tote bag, tape, pins