Dan Graves Creative Direction

Work Haven Hot Chicken

Haven Hot Chicken

An identity system flexible enough to survive whatever each new lease throws at it. Same brand, different building, every time.

Client
Haven Hot Chicken
Role
Lead Designer
Sector
Restaurant / hospitality
Haven Hot Chicken — hero image

The brief

Haven was opening stores quickly with a single existing logo and not much else. They needed an identity expansion that could be bolder and more playful without touching the wordmark, plus exterior signage and packaging built to work across whatever physical space the next lease handed them.

The wordmark stayed as a fixed input. Build everything around it.

The work

Lead designer. The structural problem was that the brand needed to flex per location, since sign size, placement, orientation, and the amount of exterior art each landlord and municipality would allow varied widely, but had to read as one brand between stores. So the identity got split into two layers.

A constant layer across every store: color palette, typography, packaging system, and the chicken-and-script identity language. And a variable layer per location: sign dimensions, mural placement and density, and the way the pattern lived on each façade.

Four active stores, plus mockups for several future locations.

Architectural drawing overlaid with the brand panel: the system shown the way it had to be discussed with builders and landlords, in their language.
Architectural drawing overlaid with the brand panel: the system shown the way it had to be discussed with builders and landlords, in their language.
Same brand, different building, denser exterior art ("SPICY, DELICIOUS, CRISPY, CRUNCHY" wrapping the corner). The system flexing.
Alternative façade treatment Same brand, different building, denser exterior art ("SPICY, DELICIOUS, CRISPY, CRUNCHY" wrapping the corner). The system flexing.
Front elevation of one store, orange band signage and a mural-scale chicken silhouette to the right of the entry.
Render Front elevation of one store, orange band signage and a mural-scale chicken silhouette to the right of the entry.
The script wordmark in lockups, roundels, and the chicken icon. The constant layer of the system.
Logo expression sheet The script wordmark in lockups, roundels, and the chicken icon. The constant layer of the system.
Exterior signage panels in the chosen direction
Exterior signage panels in the chosen direction
Pattern explorations
Pattern explorations
Project image
Heat level, sides, modifications — the chosen direction. Brand and utility on the same surface, exactly where they should be.
Final packaging dieline Heat level, sides, modifications — the chosen direction. Brand and utility on the same surface, exactly where they should be.
Scaled-up flame wing icon plus full lockup — an alternative hero treatment evaluated alongside the chosen direction.
Hero packaging exploration Scaled-up flame wing icon plus full lockup — an alternative hero treatment evaluated alongside the chosen direction.
Chicken-pattern tape running the length of the box, roundel at one end, wordmark inverted at the other. Where the brand finally lands in the customer's hand.
Packaging dieline Chicken-pattern tape running the length of the box, roundel at one end, wordmark inverted at the other. Where the brand finally lands in the customer's hand.

What I’m proudest of

The packaging, partly because the client picked one of my favorite directions. It pulled from old soda-fountain and pre-corporate quick-service Americana, bold and playful and warm, and updated it without leaning on nostalgia.

“Felt FAST and HOT before you even opened the food packaging.”

That’s the test for this kind of work. The brand has done its job before the customer even gets to the chicken.