Saint-Urbain’s charming identity for Lil’ Sweet Chick is designed to be Chick-fil-A’s antithesis 

With upcoming expansion into further restaurants and pop-ups, small chicken and waffle restaurant Lil’ Sweet Chick, a sub-brand of the Sweet Chick chain found across New York City but founded in Williamsburg, needed their identity to be reimagined into something modern but timeless. Calling on NYC-based creative agency Saint-Urbain, Lil’ Sweet Chick (co-owned by Nas) has succeeded in developing a new classic all-American-style brand identity, rooted in their aim of ‘spreading love, the Brooklyn way’.

A new charming hand-drawn wordmark is front and centre of the rebrand, providing a friendly face, partnered with an illustrated new chicken-egg-hybrid character, named Eggbert, which is found throughout the brand’s ephemera. Drawn in-house like the retro-inspired logo-mark, Eggbert is representative of their client base – described as “a hip egg with wings, beak, dad-hat and oversized boots,” by Saint Urbain’s Founder and Creative Director Alex Ostroff – and provides the “love and happiness” to go with their chunky logo.

In typical American dinner fashion, Saint-Urbain adopted a bright red as the brand’s hero colour, however, the eventual pairings are far from expected. Layering red, white and black on top of soft pastel colours, the colour combinations almost unexpectedly work, contributing to a softer and less intimidating appearance. This delightful concoction of type, illustration and colour immediately provides a happy, buzzing and electric mood across the visual language, crafting a tone which is genial, approachable and local.

The decisions leading to this tone of voice, as well as strategic decisions such as remaining open on Sundays, were very intentional and purposefully political. Sticking by their brand intention, and being as inclusive as possible, Ostroff explains that they set out to be contradictory to their competitor Chick-fil-A; “known for homophobia, and their CEO’s support for Trump’s campaigns and anti-LGBTQ organisations.”

Intending to “represent the other side of America,” and remain contrary to “following fast-casual chicken joint’s typical tropes of being Southern, farm-inspired, and closed on Sundays,” the brand’s aesthetic hopes to view the world in a more loving light. “Our clients made it very clear that they wanted a brand that was for families who were offended by Chick-fil-A’s homophobia, and were like them, young and cool (with tattoos)” Ostroff tells us, noting that it is for those “raising their kids with optimism and respect for everyone.”

Saint-Urbain