Philly Pino

We bring the Philippines to Philly!

Philly Pino is a Filipino family restaurant launched in 2022 and located in Philadelphia. Our mission is to provide an escape to the Philippines through traditional food, beverage, and entertainment experiences that celebrate Filipino culture.

My project is inspired by my experiences living in a Filipino-American household. According to my dad, family always came first and is very important in my culture. My extended family and friends would be invited for almost every celebratory occasion. My house would be decorated in colorful ribbons, balloons, and banners. The dining room table would be filled with Filipino food like sisig, palabok, adobo, steamed rice, and much more. Games and karaoke were a must. This experience of having large family gatherings is something I wanted this restaurant to embody.

To be frank, this idea was a secondary to what I thought I would be pursuing. But after feedback from my peers and professor, creating a Filipino restaurant would be fun way to get in touch with my roots and learn more about my culture. I chose the name Philly Pino because I thought it would be clever if it’s located in Philadelphia and its name derived from the word “Filipino”. When I told my parents, they were really excited and already had the entire menu laid out and ready to go.

My inspiration comes from my childhood and family parties. It made everyday seem loud, colorful, and energetic. I also looked at symbols and items normally found in the Philippines like banana leafs, Filipino fashion, tribal tattoos, woven blankets, etc. After much research, I decided to focus on the jeepney, one of the main modes of transportation in the Philippines. They are usually decorated with lots of bold, vibrant colors and patterns, which align with my brand values.

For the logo, I looked up current logos affiliated with Philly. After doing the research, I incorporated a swoosh to the tail of the ‘Y’ and an overall tilted angle to the logo. Then, I hand drew different logo variations and brought the best one into Illustrator and modified the strokes of each letter. Next, I added the sun rays from the Philippine flag and experimented with different color schemes. To balance the logo, I added a second pair of sun rays and titled the entire logo so that the letters stand vertical and the baseline if more angled. Finally, I added 2 more simplified logo variations to complete the ensemble.

For the menu format, I wanted to do separate menus for the food and drinks. The food menu would have all the food items on the front and an educational graphic on the back showing regional dishes from different parts of the Philippines. The menu contains Filipino appetizers, desserts, and entrees categorized by the protein. To fill the space, I added the front and back of a jeepney vehicle to circle back to the whole jeepney idea. For the drinks menu, I did some research on popular alcoholic drinks, as well as drinks I’ve had in my childhood (non-alcoholic of course). I added the same square pattern from the main food menu and grouped them together to form a pattern on the bottom.

Some adjectives to describe Philly Pino would be festive, colorful, and welcoming. I imagine the restaurant to have a modern style with pops of color. There would be woven basket light fixtures, potted plants, and large mural containing the map of the Philippines.

The Philippines have a lot of different fruit juices not common in the U.S. Some examples are guava, calamansi, buko “coconut”, and watermelon. Therefore, I wanted to create a packaging design of fruit juice cans. The composition of the design resembles the Filipino sun rising from a horizon. The background contains a subtle pattern of the fruit flavor itself.

Besides providing a dine-in service, Philly Pino also offers takeout. The packaging would include takeout boxes and bags that incorporate traditional Filipino woven patterns on it. I also decided to add the jeepney pattern from the menu to reference the “to-go” aspect of these products.

I wanted to create an ad for Philly Pino on Instagram. I incorporated hand drawn elements, similar to what I did for the logo, on top of images of the juice can packaging and food items. I included the food description in the ad to inform people who never tried Filipino food what was in it

I felt that a Karaoke ad was necessary since Filipinos love to sing karaoke and it’s a big part of our culture. For the composition, I used the same type and color scheme from my brand and hand drew the main lettering. I also took the same column patterns used in the website in this composition.

For the collateral, I created a dark and light apron with alternating patterns. The bottom of dark apron would have the square pattern titled at an angle and its pockets would have the main pattern. The light apron mimics the same orientation but the patterns are switched. The pins would contain phrases in Tagalog, relating to certain taste like hot, sweet, salty, and bitter. I thought this would be a simple and easy way to teach some common food-related words in Tagalog.

I had fun creating this restaurant brand. It allowed me to connect more with my family by learning more about my culture and reminding me of my family values. It also reminded me that not everyone had the same experiences as I did. Creating this allowed me to express my background and allow others a chance to experience the culture I grew up with. It’s a culture that fixates on the closeness of family and brings everyone together with the love of sharing food. Not only did this project allow me to connect to my roots more, I was also able to improve my skills as a designer. This was my first time creating an entire brand from scratch. I never knew how tedious and how much went into the process until I actually did it. This project gives me a better understanding and makes me appreciate the time and effort of designers much more.

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