As one of the most diverse universities in the UK, with students and researchers from over 120 countries, we wanted to create a common thread to unite everyone together and that we would form the basis of our creative routes from. After much discussion, we agreed on the idea of ‘ a sense of place’ – celebrating the fun, vibrant, colourful and dynamic nature of the evolving East London landscape – and created the brand name ‘East London Eats’ – using the place itself as the backdrop for all things great and ‘eats’ as the action of all coming together.

UEL (and East London in general) is a melting pot of people, cultures, ideas and influences and our logo was inspired by this. We created a typographic lockup to work effectively in any colour and used different fonts to represent the areas pride in diversity, taste and community.

Combining an energetic colour palette with dynamic shapes we developed a look and feel that tried to encapsulate these disparate and often quirky influences. Clashes of colour and shapes combine to create artwork that is unique but also clearly part of the same family.

The sub brands – Cockney Wings, Bean Box, Trader, The Mills, The Exchange, The Merchant, The Harbour and The Pump House – were all influenced by the East London food scene. Street food, artisan bakeries, fried chicken, fish and chips… it’s all going on! These sub brand designs evolved from a unique collection of house typefaces, colours, shapes and finishes, creating individual identities but united by the common East London Eats thread. This was further enhanced through mock ups of a range of collateral including restaurant counters, signage, aprons, Point of Sale material and wall graphics