Anyone in their early 30s will surely remember the early days of Amigos. ‘Remember’ might not be the smartest choice of words here, as their delicious food accompanied many not-so-easy to remember nights out. Whether devouring a piping hot Chicken Supreme or wolfing down a sesame crusted pizza in the ungodly hours of the morning, Amigos was surely a happy memory of our youth.

When we were first approached by Amigos in 2018, we had got slightly out of touch with the brand but were surprised to find out Amigos had now evolved into a growing franchise with 4 outlets across Malta, and immediate plans for expansion. We immediately understood that Amigos would be more than just another client but would require a strategic vision with long-term execution. This prospect was very exciting to us.

At the time, the marketing effort needed a solid boost, especially on digital channels. We set out building the basic foundation for any strong franchise, consistency. We started experimenting with visuals, always re-visiting, always re-evaluating.

New strategies started producing their expected results and with the launch of the Amigos Delivery App, we started seeing real progress in brand consistency, recognition, awareness and loyalty.

In the midst of all this progress, there was one thing that was however still feeling out of place along the rest of the franchise image – the Amigos Logo. It’s rather funny how something that is usually tackled first would become the anchor that cements the whole brand in place and makes sense of it as a whole.

It was paramount that we get this step right in terms of uniqueness and longevity. We thus decided to add an extra step to our creative process, and at the very beginning we approached selected Amigos consumers with a simple question and an exercise.

1. What colour would you associate with Amigos?
2. Can you quickly draw the Amigos logo in 10 seconds?

The outcome of this exercise was strongly indicative and would eventually provide our creative team with a solid base for the steps to come.

Having an already existing brand colour and symbol, we started by trying out endless iterations of Mexican hats. After hundreds of iterations, we landed upon some very nice outcomes, but something still felt missing, the options weren’t unique. So, we tracked back and challenged ourselves again – why the Mexican hat? The obvious answer was the previous Mexican inclination of the brand, ever linked to its popular tacos. But today’s Amigos stands on more than just a single product, with Pizza and Burgers getting up in the list of fan-favourites.

We continue growing the Amigos brand into a strong, home-grown, relatable franchise always looking towards new horizons.

So how could we encapsulate this brand evolution in one recognisable symbol?
We asked ourselves if Amigos was a person, who would it be?

Pizza and Burgers scream New York. So, we devised our guide term for the new Amigos logo ‘A Mexican in Manhattan’, and what other hat symbolises New York more than the Sinatra Fedora? The project was on track again and we started to iterate again, this time mixing the fedora with the sombrero

For the wordmark we went for a modern undistracting typeface and as soon as we put them together, we had that invigorating eureka moment. As with any final step we mocked up the logo on various applications and it just made sense.

Versatility, longevity, recognisability & uniqueness all in 1 logo.

Since anchoring this new look every day we continue growing the Amigos brand into a strong, home-grown, relatable franchise always looking towards new horizons.