Mama Mexa is a brand new pop-up taqueria, serving up delicious healthy fast food that celebrates family, friends and fun. The menu is a market inspired Mexican offering, including reimagined classics from neighbourhood taquerias and market tostadurias.

The brief was to create an identity that delves into Mexico’s colourful, rich, vibrant culture.

Strategically we wanted to create a solution that embodied the spirit of Mexican culture, but avoided the obvious ‘Mexican pastiche’ that typifies most Mexican canteens because they all seem to look the same.

Looking into Mexican history, we discovered the importance of Mexico’s flora and fauna which is home to many of the world's most exotic blooms. In Mexican culture, flowers and flower arranging are steeped in symbolism, rituals, myths and celebration from ancient times to present. Home gardens, markets, shrines and altars come alive with an abundance of colourful bouquets.

We took inspiration from this, and created a totally bespoke and overly flamboyant wordmark, which evokes a sense of floral bloom, bursting at the seams. Each letter comprises a set of varying width petals, giving it an eccentric energy.

The wordmark can be used in full, and also be abbreviated to just the M, which allows it to scale to fit canvases acting as an illustrative shorthand. By using the typography as pattern we reference Mexican floral motifs and kitsch tablecloths found in traditional canteens.

We extended this into a typeface complete with decorative glyphs which form the backbone to the identity. Each character, painstakingly crafted, aims to strike the perfect balance of ‘bloom’ and a floral explosion while still remaining legible.

By creating such a highly distinctive typeface, the brand becomes instantly recognizable without the inclusion of the name, and successfully plays homage to Mexican culture but in a totally fresh and unique way.