Five Fat Monks is a quick service restaurant chain in Mumbai and Pune. The restaurant takes inspiration from the bold flavours of East and Southeast Asian street food.

The brand identity system we created included the name, logo, visual language, packaging and staff apparel. With an emphasis on its quick service concept, we imagined the brand to be modern and accessible. The spicy, sweet, sticky, crunchy street food is reflected in the brand’s appetising colour tones.

Bombay’s maximalist, urban vibe found an echo in the angular, bold typography. For visual inspiration, we looked to Chinese calligraphy and the simple shapes of eating accessories (straight chopsticks, cubist takeout box, round bowl). In the logo, the symbols A, O and = symbolise a table, a monk, and chopsticks. The A was inspired from kǒu 口, the Chinese radical for “mouth.” 口 also means an opening or a gateway.

This symbol was used in different ways—hyper zoomed in and zoomed out to form diverse patterns—all over the collaterals and staff uniforms.

Since the restaurant’s specialty is create-your-own-bowl, the tone of voice is wholesome and straightforward while being just a little bit spicy.