DesignStudio captures the unifying nature of sharing food in its rebrand of TheFork

TheFork, a leading restaurant booking platform, has joined forces with DesignStudio to refresh its visual identity and brand strategy. Founded in 2007, the platform has since grown rapidly and now features 55,000 partner restaurants in 12 countries around the world, and boasts a monthly user base of 20 million visitors.

Beginning life as a “pioneering online booking diary for professionals”, TheFork is now Europe and Australia’s most popular restaurant booking platform. As such, it needed a bold and contemporary brand identity to speak to its expanding audience and global presence.

DesignStudio’s London-based team answered that call with a reimagined look and feel that senior strategist Nina Fitzpatrick says “brings people together in an increasingly digitised world, champions restaurant culture and not only feeds people, but the human spirit”.

At the centre of this rebrand is the new logo, which informs the rest of the system, from the type to the illustrations, and is composed of a negative space design of a three-pronged fork. Rendered with simple two tone colours, it speaks to the brand’s desire for an accessible yet vibrant identity.

Speaking on this, Charlotte Francis, design director at DesignStudio says, “Our brand platform is the blueprint of our visual identity. Built around the creative idea [of] ‘Feed your Spirit’, our system is based on the energy of people coming together around a table and that energy radiating”.

The various forms, symbols and patterns are accompanied by a “reinvigorated” hero green, a newly expanded selection of supporting greens, and a diverse complementary palette that not only allows for flexible applications but also nods to the inherent diversity of colours and flavours found in food around the world.

These come to life through clever uses of motion design that take advantage of TheFork’s digital context and, much like the colours, they express simple but passionate energy that pervades the entire identity.

Finally, a new tone of voice uses “punchy yet playful” language to emphasise TheFork’s ethos of unity and connection. It alludes to the communal nature of restaurant culture and the importance of breaking bread with friends and strangers alike.

“Our mission has always extended far beyond restaurant reservations,” says Jose Noguer, CMO of TheFork. “Instead, our essence lies in human connection. For us, restaurants are essential social spaces that have the power to bring people together. In restaurants we find not only food, but our appetite for life itself. It's where we gather to share love, conversation and laughter.”