Back to the future! We made Nando’s more future proof. 

To help make Nando’s more future proof we worked with a council of experts including David Panos (semiotician) and Tracy Lynch (interior designer). The result; a refreshed, more honest, more vibrant looking Nando’s. A more democratised system ready for the brand’s global ambitions.

The Barcelos icon and wordmark has been simplified and refined. No more wobbly edges, look ‘I’m hand drawn’. Just a fresh, youthful, bold expression – and now with a bigger heart and a PERi-apostrophe.

The iconic Nando’s font (all 350 characters) has been simplified and tweaked to read better, then hand painted by Marks Salimu a Southern African sign writer. The font was then digitised, ready for use all over the world. Marks’s humility and good nature is now baked into everything Nando’s says.

To define a new colour palette we looked at Nando’s Central Kitchen (Nando’s spiritual home in Lorentzville) for inspiration. The palette combines comfort neutrals with challenge brights to create cool collisions. PERi-Red was born when we optically matched sun-ripened African Birds Eye Chillies to a rich soulful red ink at a colour lab in the south of Johannesburg.
Specialist colourist: Manie Peterson

The secondary font, DIN Next, has been selected for its great legibility. It is also the font used on all road signs throughout South Africa. Now the font that directs us around our country will direct customers to Nando’s restaurants around the world.

Chillies, hearts and flames form a core mnemonic system in the Nando’s design universe. We relooked these making sure that they have relevance and place. Each icon can now be referenced to the Nando’s logo and restaurants.

The PERi-ometer is a proprietary collateral piece, unique to Nando’s. We relooked it to make it more ownable and functional.

We created these cool African inspired pattern sets to proudly broadcast the brand’s Southern African provenance. The patterns incorporated bits of Portuguese and Nando’s iconography (chillies, flames and hearts) making them more ownable.

Comprehensive prop sets have been developed to create consistency around the world for all food photography. The sets comprise of patterned and textured surfaces. Locally sourced crockery items that show the food beautifully were also included in the kits.
Photographer: Nigel Deary, Stylist: Lisa Clark

To make the system universally accessible we built a VI website. The site ensures controlled access for creative partners. Updates to the system can easily be effected. In addition, the site serves as an aggregated space for best practice examples from around the world.