Alba Ray's
Bringing the Soul of New Orleans Into the Heart of the Mission
Background
The dynamic duo of restauranteur Alvin Garcia and Chef Adam Rosenblum have been taking the San Francisco restaurant industry by storm. In 2014, the opened their wildly popular American bistro Causwells in the Marina district. The burger at Causwells received so much attention that the duo built their 2nd successful concept around it called Popson's in 2016.
In early 2017, Alvin and Adam came to Plinth to build a website and create the brand fundamentals for their new Cajun bar and restaurant called Alba Ray's.
objectives
- Build website before opening
- Develop brand fundamentals around the Alba Ray's concept
- Create verbal identity and web copy
- Execute in a short time frame (3 weeks start to finish)
strategy
- Conduct brand exploration
- Distill Alba Ray's core purpose and brand values
- Craft brand language and web copy
- Build a website that focuses on the Alba Ray's experience
Brand Exploration
In order for a brand to truly come to life it needs to be more than just words, symbols, and pictures. People resonate with brands that have a sense of personality, purpose, and values.
Alba Ray's already had a great design language created by JJ Graham Design. To infuse meaning behind the design, we conducted brand exploration exercises with the Alba Ray's team in order distill their core purpose and brand values.
crafting a brand Language and web copy
The owners of Alba Ray's enjoyed Cajun cuisine and wanted to create a concept around it. It wasn't until they took a trip to Louisiana did they fall in love with New Orlean's easy going attitude and lust for life.
On the name alone, it's difficult to decipher what type of restaurant Alba Ray's was. To give the public a sense of what Alba Ray's is and give a nod to Adam and Alvin's roots we developed a short, sweet and focused tagline.
"Cajun Soul x California Love"
For the website copy, we needed to create copy that would instantly let people know that Alba Ray's was all the fun and culture of New Orleans. We decided to go with a the Cajun French translation of "Let the good times roll!" which is a mantra used throughout New Orleans.
"Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler!"
Beneath the anthem, we crafted copy to communicate what people would experience at Alba Ray's.
Discover the soul of New Orleans in the heart of the Mission. Join our celebration of life, libation, and Cajun cookin'.
A WEBSITE Communicating the alba ray's experience
Alba Ray's is more than just a place to enjoy drinks and Cajun food. It's a vibrant place for people to socialize and experience the unique lust for life found in the New Orleans.
After the hero image on the website, we immediately placed a photo gallery containing scenes of food, drink, and people. To emphasize the social aspect of Alba Ray's, we used a tiled photo gallery format to mimic social media rather than your traditional slide show.
ASK YOURSELF, DOES YOUR BRAND AND WEBSITE WORK TO BRING YOU BUSINESS? IF NOT WE SHOULD TALK.
