Taisen- Taiwanese Street Food
TaiSen, a theoretical Taiwanese street food restaurant, was a semester long project I created at Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University. The goal was to create a brand that was centered around my familial heritage and build the restaurant from the bottom up. This meant not only designing a space that visually resembled my family’s memories and traditions, but also diving into the generations that came before me.
TaiSen, 生台, translates to “born in Taiwan” in Chinese. The first character, 生, is the second character in the Chinese word born, 出生. The second character, 台, is the first character in Taiwan, 台湾.
One of my favorite childhood memories is leaving my aunt’s four-story, back alley apartment in Taiwan with my mom and little brother to get breakfast. We would wander down the back alleys, past the temple, to a little cart that sold Zongzi. A little further down, onto the main street, there was a small breakfast counter that sold Sao Bean, Dan Bing, and Youtiao. We would carry our food back to the house and share it with the rest of my family. My grandmother, Lini, grew up in Taiwan and immigrated to the US when she married my grandfather. My Chinese heritage and Taiwanese culture has been a large part of my life, so I chose a Taiwanese street food restaurant to honor and remember that side of my heritage, staying authentic to my experiences with my family.
Moodboards
I began this process with an extensive mood board. It helps me as a designer to narrow down what direction I want to go in by laying out photos that articulate what is in my head.
I began this process with a deep dive into visual research. It all started with a rough written outline of components that I felt were important to building the skeleton of my resturaunt. I then looked through my photos of Taiwan and spent a few days on Pinterest and Behance, paying attention to what specifically I enjoyed in each photo, artwork, or project. My moodboard then became my guide; a point of reference I would revisit when creating each component so the overall design of each aspect always began at the same place. However, I don’t allow my moodboard constrain me artistically. I was constantly adding and adjusting it throughout the project. It was imperative to me that my brand identity stayed authentic to my family rather than something that translated as stereotypically Chinese or Taiwanese.
Logo
When creating the logo, I began with over 50 thumbnail sketches of marks that related to Taiwan and my family. I put myself back on the streets of Taiwan, visiting the markets with my great Aunt, admiring the artwork outside of my aunts house on Snail Alley, the smells of the food, and the atmosphere of the architecture. I also thought back on my individual family and what imagery relates directly to us. I wanted to steer clear of common marks found in Asian restaurants which led me to my controversial but ultimately loved street rat, or “ratatatat” as he was sometimes called in class.
While I know a rat is a bit of an odd choice considering I am brainding a resturaunt, I found it fitting in more ways than one. Before you say “ew”, let me explain. First and foremost, he is a representation of my younger brother, the namesake of this brand, TaiSen. Taisen was born in 2008, the year of the rat on the Chinese calendar. Rats are also a common street animal in Taiwan (much like in any city) and so he became the perfect mascot for a Taiwanese street food. The “tattoos” on his back also have a twofold meaning. My great uncle was a traditional scroll painter in Taiwan for most of his life, and I wanted to showcase the sentimental connection I had with him and ink paintings by detailing the rats back with brush strokes. Centered on his back is a Japanese cherry blossom, a flower which has always reminded me of my Grandmothers youngest sister. The tatoo’d rat began as a sketch on paper, and then a larger drawing done using Japanese anime brush pens. I scanned him in, gave him colors, and voila!
Type Style
Choosing a type style for TaiSen was one of the easier parts of the brand identity. I wanted the style to reflect the organic nature of the illustrations and the logo. I didn’t want a script but I wanted it to look hand done. I ended up using my own handwriting for the main type in the logo. For the subheadings and body typeface used in every other element of the brand I went with Gitan Latin. I enjoyed how the font felt structured, yet mimicked a pen with slight line weight variations. Below are many different typestyle pairings I considered before I landed on the final styles seen in my style tile.
Colors
Another very large decision in my brand identity was color. I struggled with color for a while. I wanted the color scheme to feel oriental while not being red and white or blue and white. This goes back to not wanting a brand that read as stereotypically Chinese. I ended up scrolling through the photos I had from my last visit to Taiwan and was drawn to the greens of the foliage, the reddish browns of the worn-down brick, and the bright blues and teals in the back alley where my aunt lived. With ink drawings and illustrations being key to my brand identity, I thought that incorporating a deep inky blue was only appropriate.
Illustration
An integral part of my brand identity are the hand drawn illustrations. One of my earliest memories is painting in my great uncle’s studio in Taipei. We sat in the humid heat for hours looking through his drawings. He painted a panda bear with me, taking the time to teach me how to hold the brush and crush the ink. I was young, maybe 8 or 9, but with his help I learned how to imply the body of the bear without drawing every line and use negative space purposefully. It was my first exposure to those artistic concepts and I remember it vividly and fondly. I wanted to honor his craft by inking every part of my brand, from the logo and illustrations to the frames on the menu. Most of the illustrations were done with pen and ink on paper, then scanned into Adobe Illustrator. Others were done with ink brushes on procreate and scanned into AI. This was my favorite part of the process and the part that felt most true to my artistic voice as a designer.
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Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
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Typography 3001
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Mitch Wiesen