Kurppa Hosk is trying to change the visual language of the hamburger

Kurppa Hosk reckons that America has been holding the monopoly on fast food visuals for too long. While the American look surrounding fast food is well established, the Stockholm-New York agency wanted to go a different route to develop a brand identity for Tugg Burgers, a chain of Swedish burger joints from Gothenburg to Malmö. In particular, Kurppa Hosk wanted to break away from the reliance on retro American burger culture that can be spotted in restaurant chains across the globe.

Kurppa Hosk explains that this direction came from questioning: “What does it mean for a physical place to be for everyone?” For the agency, designing “for everyone” meant broadening the visual language of burgers, breaking from “a long-established category behaviour”.

The Tugg identity doesn’t look solely American, it’s more closely aligned to global gaming universes; the identity features massive amounts of typographic variation which speaks to Kurppa Hosk’s non-place specific approach. All typography across the project was specially designed for the purpose of Tugg, with the exception of the body text, which is KH Teka.

“At its core, the new Tugg identity is about the universality of the humble hamburger, and how it can be brought to life in new ways to welcome anyone and everyone through design,” the agency says.

The burger is brought to life in various expressions. A hand-drawn logo – which features a chomping hamburger icon in Pac-Man style – appears in full 3D and as a flattened graphic. Meanwhile, 3D burger characters show up across brand illustrations and in animation, bringing a lightness to otherwise intense typography. Kurppa Hosk explains it developed a family of glossy burger parts, including “Cheesela (cheese), Fritte (fries), Gurra (cucumber), Mustafa (mustard), Shalotte (red onion) and Ketty (tomato)".

Interestingly, inspiration behind these 3D characters came from a reference from co-founder Thomas Kurppa, of a Sriracha bottle in the shape of a Kidrobot Dunny. The agency explains: “The odd bottle with lots of personality inspired us to bring life to the Tugg family. We wanted to create a group of likeable characters with an attitude who’s your friend but also mischievous and rebellious.”

Though the dynamic typographic approach of Tugg is typically Kurppa Hosk, Tugg marks a bit of a departure for the agency. Over the last two years, it has delivered a wealth of sleek, future-facing brands, from an alloy manufacturer rebrand to the Beatport overhaul. Tugg offers the chance to see the agency play in a new space.