Hot Dog on a Stick logo

You may remember my emotional rant about Ihop recently and its tragic mistake to lose the “pancake” concept. I am heartened when someone gets it right. Hot Dog on a Stick is a favorite of most people I know. Teenage boys like to stand by and watch the young women employees pump the lemonade machine. Kids like the cheese on a stick.

I like the design aesthetic. Somebody smart decided to stay with the look that has a decidedly 1960s vibe. I’d like to believe that this was on purpose, not because somebody simply forgot to rebrand and then it came back into style. The look is what a hot dog stand should be: bright, cheerful, playful, and simple. There is a rigor in its implementation that should make any hard-core identity manager swoon. The drinks match the color palette of the logo, the uniforms reiterate the attitude, and the minimal menu reinforces the core experience: hot dogs on a stick. Life is serious, but corn dogs really aren’t. This is a perfect combination of form, function, and communication fusing together perfectly.

Hot Dog on a Stick stand

Hot Dog on a Stick packaging

Hot Dog on a Stick uniforms

Hot Dog on a Stick drinks and uniforms

The lemonade pumping

Hot Dog on a Stick signage

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Mexico Restauranté y Barra, AdamsMorioka

One of our favorite clients and good friend, Larry Nicola, came to us recently and asked us to work on a new restaurant, Mexico. We had worked with Larry on Nic’s, Beverly Hills, and now Larry wanted to open a restaurant that would feature traditional Mexican food with the best ingredients, and Larry’s amazing culinary flair. In our first meeting, he said he’d like it to feel like a great evening in Puerto Vallarta or Tiajuana, minus the part where you wake up the next morning on the street with no recollection of what you’ve done. We approached the project with a low-tech philosophy. If we could do something by hand, we did, if we could manufacture something cheaper, we did. We did a huge amount of research, collecting Mexican restaurant menus from everywhere. Not surprisingly, they were wonderful. And we created a fictional person who would design everything. This person would be a restaurant employee with no design training, but a huge amount of enthusiasm and passion; someone who would give every piece her all with the very best intentions, but just get it wrong. We even convinced the off-the-shelf menu company to make the very low cost menu holders in turquoise, which they repeatedly reminded us might be garish. And?

Mexico take-out menu, AdamsMorioka

Menu research

Senor Frogs menu research

Caliente, menu research

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