“Not Spicy-Crazy Enough: A Visual Analysis”

0 Scoville: Introduction to Visual Identity

Visual identity is the process of conveying messages, brand identity, philosophy, merely through visuals which usually consists of typography, color palette, stylescapes, logo, etc. It is the most important aspect of a brand so that people would easily associate what the brand is trying to achieve and its vision, if you fail to do so your brand image would be misperceived or maybe it would cause disharmonization of elements that would turn the visual identity into an unattractive business model which essentialy makes it a failed project. Let’s put this into a theory shall we?

250.000 Scoville: Visual Analysis

To set up an example, there’s a street food vendor around my hometown in Surabaya that sells “Nasi Gila” which is a local dish originated from Jakarta that is usually very spicy (remember this part). The street food vendor is called “WARUNG NASI GILA” Now, when you see this design, what do you see? Do you detect any spicy vibe? The kind where your mouth and nose keep watering and make them beg for 1500ml-sized bottle of water because of how spicy it is? Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question, it does not even bother to give the vibe of CHALLENGING you into eating this delicate spicy food originated from Jakarta, look at that innocent looking smiley face! That is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a spicy food, it should be RED and EVIL (figuratively, not literally). Don’t even get me started with the typography, the font combo alone is the only thing that makes me crazy, not the food! It’s all over the place, and the fonts aren’t even consistent! Sans + Serif would fit correctly and just 2 fonts in total only! I see 4-5 different fonts in that design alone should be sacrilegious!

Then, the color palette, while yes red and yellow makes a good combination when you’re trying to say “spicy” but the execution in “WARUNG NASI GILA” here does not qualify as one, spicy isn’t only red, it can also be visualised as black. There are plenty of references on how you should illustrate spiciness and the local feeling (described through the patterns), this is one of the good depictions of spiciness. “B-but I like the smiley rice bowl, it looks so cute I don’t want it to be gone!”, well there’s a way to do it, make the innocent looking rice bowl burn in a pit of fire. No, literally, it would look 100% better and it would really give off the “spicy” vibe which also describes the food itself in a literal way (Nasi Gila).

Wash Your Tongue with Milk: Conclusion

In conclusion, to strengthen your visual identity, it should evoke personal feelings that people will get whenever they see a brand’s face. A good brand identity is a good brand.

While I was quite mean and very critical towards someone’s street vendor because of their design alone, we all should remember that at the end of the day we have to learn from mistakes and that sometimes, bad designs set a good example that not all people can design and that is totally okay! Because no matter how bad people are at designing sometimes, we also have to remember that people tried their best from within their heart. As long as the food is good though.

Source:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/76fbx9PHh5fWGgqW6

https://www.briliofood.net/resep/11-resep-nasi-gila-pedas-ala-rumahan-lezat-dan-praktis-2108043.html https://www.facebook.com/koberdewisri

Bonifacius Bagas Wyrananta Benge Student ID: 2702233873