&Walsh bring Egyptian beauty to New York with their identity for street food restaurant Zooba

Zooba is an Egyptian street food chain serving modern twists on the country’s traditional cuisine. Following the success of their six restaurants in Egypt, they made the journey to New York to open a new location as the first step in a rollout across the US, and asked &Walsh to rebrand them in-line with the expansion.

In order to authentically experience the Egyptian culture and cuisine, &Walsh visited Cairo and were inspired by the beauty of the layered visuals that pack the streets. The hand-painted typography, geometric patterns, mix and match coloured tiles, posters and painted illustrations they saw allowed them to understand how to bring the chaos of Middle Eastern streets to America.

They commissioned Cairo-based calligrapher Mohamed Mohamed (Zizo) to paint a collection of Arabic typography that is layered in with their own versions of Cairo’s street patterns and illustrations. The custom typeface adds to the quirkiness through its unicase letters and diamond umlauts, and by appearing for both the logo and headlines, creates a consistent and recognisable voice for the brand.

&Walsh