Here is my final logo:
Here is Panera’s current logo:
How final logo visually communicates Panera brand
The new logo visually communicates Panera’s casual clean-green cafe and bakery brand in many ways – from the use of a new simple and casual visually appealing image, to the use of a their current (wonderful and recognizable) casual Panera font, to the use of contrasting complimentary natural warm and cool colors, to a name ‘rebrand’ that better reflects who they are.
Panera isn’t just a bakery.
How each of the logo design elements visually communicates the Panera brand is discussed below.
Design Rationale:
The new Panera logo is simple, memorable, timeless, versatile, and appropriate. How these design principles are incorporated into the new logo is integrated into the discussion below.
Inspiration – why Panera logo?, minimalism, shape, and color
The desire to redesign the Panera logo was inspired by my personal experience – I nearly didn’t try them (they came to our area several years ago), figuring they were a bread bakery. I don’t each much bread.
Who knew they were a casual healthy food cafe and bakery? If they hadn’t been in a hotel I was staying in near DC, I probably never would’ve found out.
They are now one of my favorite casual restaurants…
The overall minimalist look of the logo was inspired by Professor Groat’s lectures and several days spent reviewing other logos, including recent ‘best and worst’ lists and restaurant and healthy food logos.
The inspiration for the new image was six-fold :
- Desire to improve on the current confusing, poorly rendered (IMO) image of ‘Mother Bread’
- Mother Bread’s flowing hair in the current image
- Desire to simplify the image a la the Nike ‘swoosh’ and make it readily identifiable and timeless
- Images of ‘mother earth’ holding the earth in her outstretched hands
- Desire for a natural color scheme and image representing Panera’s commitment to clean-green food
- Desire to create a versatile, recognizable image that could be separated from the Panera name and used in a wide variety of ways
The image is intended to have two ‘deeper’meanings, both inspired by the Panera brand:
- Mother Bread outstretching her arm, holding ‘green-clean’ healthy food, or conversely…
- a spoon holding Panera’s clean-green food
Rule of thirds
The logo was designed following the rule of thirds, with the ‘image’ in the top third, the Panera name (large) and in the center, and their brand – cafe and bakery – in smaller letters in the bottom third.
Flow
The simple flowing image at the top is intended to draw your eye to the logo, then right down to the Panera name, which is presented in a large font for that purpose. Then the eye is drawn down to the ‘cafe and bakery’ brand in smaller dark brown font.
Contrast
There is contrast in two primary areas – the attractive contrasting of warm and cool colors, and in the pairing of two very different fonts – one in the Panera name, and the second in their brand.
Repetition
The green font is repeated in the image and Panera name, and the brown font is repeated in the image and Cafe and Bakery font color.
Alignment
The text and images are centered horizontally and placed in an eye-pleasing way relative to each other.
Shape
The inspiration for the new logo image shape is discussed above.
The shape is intended to be simple, recognizable, timeless, versatile, visually appealing, abstract, and whimsical – reflecting the casual Panera font and their brand.
Name rebrand
The logo uses the name ‘Panera Café and Bakery’ – a rebranding of Panera Breads to better reflect what Panera is all about.
They don’t just bake bread… they are a casual dining cafe restaurant bakery that is committed to using ‘clean and green’ ingredients and meat from animals raised ethically (think free range chickens fed with non-GMO grain, and antibiotic free cows)
I nearly didn’t try Panera because I am not much of a bread eater.
The name rebrand from Panera Bread to Panera Cafe and Bakery is one of the most critical logo change I made, and is intended to best reflect who they are.
Font
Panera name font:
I explored the fonts available on Adobe Illustrator by scrolling through them in the draft logo, and narrowed it to three plus the current logo, which is last:
My gut feeling was to identify a font that is a bit whimsical, script-like, and informal – in keeping with the casual nature of Panera. I decided to stay with the current font – it is perfect IMO – it represents their casual brand perfect. If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.
Cafe and Bakery font – font pairing
I explored what the Panera font pairs nicely with, scrolling through available AI fonts. I recalled the Copperplate Gothic Bold font I used on my Web banner – thinking it might be just right for the ‘Cafe & Bakery’ part of the logo. It was – by far.
Color
Color simplification – less is more
The logo has been simplified from a color perspective – the green and tan background has been eliminated.
Two colors are used in the new logo – a brown that is currently in the ‘mother bread’ image is carried to the cafe and bakery font as also to part of the new logo intended to represent an outstretched arm (or spoon) holding food.
The green in the Panera name and in the logo image is intended to respresent their commitment to clean-green food. The use of green in logos of organic and healthy food restaurants is common.
ART 125 - Introduction to Computer Graphics 