Rambutan, Asian Street Food

Blacksburg, VA

Cooper Carry's brand team developed the logo and brand for Rambutan, an Asian food venue, for the new dining facilities at Hitt Hall at Virginia Tech. The menu has been specially curated by chef Mai Pham, a nationally recognized Asian cuisine expert, TV Food Network host, cookbook author, and president and founder of Star Ginger and Lemon Grass Restaurants. The menu offers authentic flavors from southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, and China). The flavorful, spicy, and fresh cuisine is inspired specifically by Asian street food, including pho noodle soups, rice bowls, grilled and braised meats, and vegetarian delicacies. Mai's team also selected the name, Rambutan, a healthy and nutrient rich fruit grown in southeast Asia.

Cooper Carry's brand team worked with Mai's team and Virginia Tech to design a fun and approachable brand that captured the vibrancy and the flavor of the food. Rambutan is set in all lower case, making it more friendly and inviting. The logo has a bit of quirkiness to it with the rotated “u” and the crossbar of the "t" representing a pot of hot boiling water with noodles and chopsticks, a staple in Asian street food. The vibrant orange and yellow color palette is paired with a calming and inviting purple. Not only do these colors perfectly represent the flavorful and spicy food, they work extremely well on both light and dark backgrounds. To round out the brand package, our team developed alternative badge logos that can be used on packaging, as alternate signage for the venue, on menu boards, or as a social media avatar.

Hitt Hall will feature a 600-seat full-service multivenue dining facility on two floors of the building’s west wing, flexible general assignment classrooms on the third floor, and open collaboration zones throughout. The dining capacity added by Hitt Hall, with its nine distinct dining venues, will increase and more evenly distribute dining services for students, faculty, and staff on the Blacksburg campus. The building, designed by Cooper Carry, will provide an expanded physical presence for the Myers-Lawson School of Construction - a joint collaboration between the College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the College of Engineering - as well as a unique two-story Innovation Lab providing program opportunities for temporary and large-scale student-based projects.