Poogan’s Porch
Contributed by Jay Fletcher of South Carolina-based J Fletcher Design.
As one of Charleston’s oldest independent culinary establishments, Poogan’s Porch is an icon. The process of overhauling the restaurant’s identity was about straddling a few different lines — a new look needed to pay homage to their well-known and beloved past, but also offer a cleaner, more sophisticated nod to its future. It needed to be distinct and bold, but in a laid-back, understated, Southern way. Friendly but refined, approachable but elegant. We wanted it to look old and new at the same time. Poogan’s has established itself as a longstanding favorite amongst tourists, but with fresh, noteworthy things going on in the kitchen, they wanted to revamp their look in an effort to attract the local crowd as well.
Their existing identity was all over the map — several color palettes in use throughout various collateral, different wordmarks in circulation, and even an old watercolor painting which was passed along from time-to-time to serve as a logomark (examples below).
Old Poogan’s Porch identity
Old Poogan’s Porch identity
So in an effort to simplify and solidify their look into a single cohesive identity, everything was scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up, from the basic graphic identity to supporting copy, photography, signage, and web.
Lots of local talent involved in this project:
Jenny Badman nailed the tone with some great copy. Limelight Sign Co. didn’t flinch when asked if we could build a sign out of floorboards. (Not only did they do it, but they used wood reclaimed from the restaurant itself.) Paul & Jason hooked us up with tasty photography. And Dwarf Dog Chuck destroyed the website development.
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More identity work on the J Fletcher Design website.
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10 comments on “Poogan’s Porch”
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Beautiful approach. I’ve visited this restaurant, and wasn’t blown away by the service or food, though. Here’s hoping that those (crucial) elements will be improved upon to be worthy of such a lovely refresh.
I think the logo misses the mark. All of the collateral is beautifully designed and readable, except for the gorgeous unreadable logo. Too many curly queues and swashes bury the type.
Gorgeous work. Love it. And I personally don’t find the logo too hard to read. Maybe there’s an extra curlicue to two. But other than that I have no complaints. The website is lovely.
I too love the approach, but wonder why they picked such a dark background with a strong texture for the website. It’s hard to read, especially when the brightness is set low. The curlycues are distinctive, but again a little hard to read. Love the monogram on the menu!
Nice work. The design and writing do a very good job of making me think the restaurant is much older than it actually is. Though I probably would have omitted the actual date it opened. Maybe it’s just my age, or the fact that I’m living in Barcelona now, but 1976 doesn’t seem all that long ago for positioning a restaurant as an institution. Even Los Angeles has restaurants older than that…
@Paul – If restaurants keep open longer than a few years, it’s an accolade. 1976 is a pretty decent run of it. it’s kind of sad, but so many folks open a restaurant, then fail. It’s a hard biz.
The identity is definitely a huge step forward, but I do agree with the others here in that the logotype is just too much. It’s close, but needs to be reduced a little bit more. Spot on. Blogged about this a bit ago at http://invigor8.net not too long ago.
Was just in charleston, but missed my opportunity to visit Poogan’s. Maybe next time.
I agree with Nancy, the logo is missing the point of a logo, it’s hard to read, is too curly and over the top. It might as well be set in Curlz MT!
The only image that catches my eye here is ‘poogans-porch-identity-01.jpg’, but the rest just doesn’t work to be honest. The colour scheme looks uninviting and a little drab (not the best use of teal), and I agree with Anita, the texture and the background colour makes the type terribly hard to read.
That being said, I’m sure the Poogan’s Porch is quite happy to have their business re-vamped. At the end of the day it comes down to: happy client, happy designer.
I hate to say this because it feels rude to say negative things about someone’s work, but I cannot dislike this enough.
I find it looks old fashioned … in a bad way. The company launched in 1976 and yet has been branded in what looks to me very strongly defined as 1920/30s style? Just for the sake of making it look old fashioned? Picking a random era? Is the building from this era maybe?
Even if there is some rationale to selecting this era, the font selected I find to be almost illegible and in my mind very impractical choice for a company identity.
There are random mismatched swirls coming off the lettering and one (near the end of ‘porch’) of them even looks like the letter P far too much to be sitting near the other letters like that.
Sorry to be harsh, but I really don’t have anything good to say about this. Not even the well designed marketing collateral can save it for me.
Loving the Art Deco style on the logo but agree with others on the choice of font. The restaurant resides in an 1888 Victorian, so typography from that era could have provided a more authentic tone. Also, the color palette on the website is fairly illegible. This in one of those area where the branding should be flexible as a website does not always translate from print.
The photography, letterpress monogram on the menus, and icons on the website are smaller aspects which help to pull the brand back together. Props for using WordPress!
Clean and beautifully rustic. I especially love the secondary signature logo. Although, I would have to agree with the comments that the main signature is a bit difficult to read. Nevertheless, I think it reflects the charm of the establishment.