Articulating the Wasabi Group family brand umbrella
26 Projects was approached by the owners of Wasabi Group summer of 2020 looking to bring cohesion to their Winnipeg-based restaurant group and to help further articulate the story of each of their existing restaurant concepts under this parent company. Although their restaurants – Wasabi Broadway, Wasabi Sabi, Chosabi and Cho Ichi Ramen – are all well-known and loved by Winnipegers and travelers to the city, Wasabi Group was not formally understood by the public as the overarching family brand. Our task was to build brand awareness for all restaurants and the restaurant group through a bold and completely refreshed online presence, appealing and comprehensive to a wide-ranging demographic.
The Wasabi Group logo expresses a balance of modernity and tradition, as this is a consistent theme among the restaurant family in their approach to food and environment. Font selections for the word mark are both elegant and grounded, while the hand-painted red strokes express a sense of movement, and further abstract the brand’s initials, W and g. Art direction for photography captured both the elevated experience and unique offerings at the Wasabi locations, contrasted with the urban casualness of the Chosabi and Cho Ichi Ramen locations.
The studio prioritized building a robust and visually engaging online web presence for Wasabi, Chosabi, and Cho Ichi Ramen with the integration of online ordering and e-commerce functionality.
A separate e-commerce platform was developed for Wasabi Group, where all restaurants have a presence, but where the Wasabi Group can truly shine – featuring the owners’ culinary history and personal story, overarching initiatives, and an expanding online shop. We began to populate all restaurant social media channels using Instagram and Facebook as the primary platforms to reach and grow their audiences. Though all within the same family, each restaurant concept is appealing to a particular taste, mood, and demographic. Wasabi – sophisticated, established, traditional; Chosabi – Cool, innovative, quick quality; Cho Ichi Ramen – Traditional techniques and flavours kicked up a notch, casual, humble. With that, the content created for social needed to be interconnected yet each with their own style and voice.