How do you avoid looking like a generic chain?

The brand is tied to a detail only this venue has: the tile, the neighbourhood name, the crockery or the trade written the way you say it. It looks like a chain when the mark could hang on any street in Spain. Take the name off a proof and show it to someone from the neighbourhood. If they cannot tell which door it is, this place's detail is missing. The palette of a chain the owner saw on a trip gets copied, and the Collado Villalba venue looks like a branch. The regular stops feeling it is theirs.

The mark and the palette come from a photo of this door, and the sheet names that source. The menu shows the same detail, not a franchise pattern.

Join our branding community

Join a community for people who care how a brand shows up on the door, the menu and the phone—not just in a pretty PDF. We share brand judgement you can use this week: names, systems, applications and decisions that hold on the floor. No endless moodboards, no empty decks and no agency theatre. Short takes, clear examples and tips for local businesses that already exist and need to look like themselves at every touchpoint.