Q&A: Condado Tacos Redesign Brings New Logo, Steel Spork

Editor’s Note: Condado Tacos, a multi-unit located in the Midwest, announced a redesign this past summer. The restaurant is known for its colorful murals – painted by local artists – and other hip design elements, so we were curious to learn more about the redesign. Publisher Ed Avis interviewed Joe Kahn, founder and chief innovation officer, and Sara Kear, chief marketing officer.

What prompted the redesign?

Joe Kahn: We were approaching our 10-year milestone with 50 plus locations, and we thought this is the opportunity to evolve, to remain relevant, to become even more exciting. You know, it wasn't really about fixing anything that was broken. It was more about stepping into the new era with confidence. We're a young brand and really getting things out of my head took about 10 years.

Sara Kear: As we grow, we’re entering new markets and we wanted to make sure that we had a consistency of personality. Obviously still with a lot of local flair, we're never going to lose that, but it was really more about an articulation of who we are and what we're all about and what we look like. Because we haven't really been out there telling people exactly who Condado is.

I understand you surveyed customers and held focus groups prior to the redesign. What did you learn from customers and employees that influenced the redesign?

Kear: There were a couple of through lines or patterns that we heard. The word “love” was used a lot, which was interesting because, you know, we're a taco restaurant! But there is something deeper to the Condado experience than just serving tacos to people. There’s a kind of an ethos that Joe has had from the beginning related to the importance of humanity, both in how we treat our people, how we develop them, and how the artists are part of the expression of the brand.

     One thing that kind of came to light was our old logo really didn't match our brand very well. The feedback was that the logo is very sterile. It almost looks like a tech logo. We didn’t want to change the logo too much, but we wanted it to have that organic, artistic flair that you feel when you walk through the door. So we took the old logo and had an artist do a hand drawn rendition of it, and we blew up the words ‘taco’ and ‘tequila.’ In the process we stripped back a lot of colors. We wanted to make it something that's very ownable, visually, but is unusual and feels untraditional and offbeat.

Original art has been part of the Condado vibe from the beginning. Were these artists involved in the redesign?

Kear: Our art director, Alyssa Martin, has been with Condado for 10 years, and she used to be solely overseeing the artists, the actual muralists who would paint the, the restaurants. In the last year she officially joined the marketing team. [Having the artists be part of the marketing team] was really helpful, especially as we were approaching doing this rebrand, because we wanted to make sure that we were speaking with one voice and that we were able to leverage all of their talents.

     I think we have a hundred local artists that we work with around the country that we will continue to partner with. You'll see more expressive, bright, vibrant energy works of art, either murals in the restaurant, or sometimes one-off projects. Our catering box is a good example. It was a one-off, unique art piece that was developed for that packaging.

What else besides the logo and artwork has changed?

Kahn: One example is our plastic ‘spork.’ Maybe that doesn't scream value anymore. So we're going to utensils now and we're going to plateware and making it more of an experience for the same price. So we're adding a lot of value into our restaurants, not just with the food.

You mean that you're using washable wear?

Kear: Right, it is a metal spork. It is kind of untraditional. The spork has been part of Condado forever, and it actually is lovely to eat with between the dips and the bowls; it works really well with all of our food. And then the bowl is this abnormal shape. It's not just a plate, it's not just a bowl. We are holding onto that artistic flair and energy with all of the decisions related to the dining room experience, too.

       We have what we call an experience innovation meeting that is very specifically about the restaurant design. Joe mentioned upleveling things like the plastic wear. Well, we've also heard from guests that the napkins are not the best quality. So how we can uplevel that part of the experience? Our chairs were another thing. Everyone was like, your chairs are really uncomfortable. So how do we address guest comfort? Because we want them to hang out and stay and feel comfortable. So we have a lot in the hopper.

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