Curves ahead: studded with sinuous shapes, Studio Furious crafts a Memphis-esque brand for Taco Mesa

When Studio Furious began working on the branding for Taco Mesa, a taqueria in Paris, the architecture and interior design collective Uchronia had already started designing the store. Along with a fiery colour palette of orange and purple, the team had also designed a wavy, statement mirror for the store’s façade, reminiscent of Ettore Sottsass’ Ultrafragola mirror. To build a cohesive visual world for the restaurant, Studio Furious began taking some notes from the interiors, and of course, from tacos themselves. “One of our first inspirations was the identity for the 1968 Summer Olympics – created by Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, Eduardo Terrazas and Lance Wyman – with its famous rounded typeface made of multiple outlines. Moreover, the round shape of the taco tortilla and the wavy shape of the taco holder were very inspiring, and they helped us create the shape directory that you can find all across the branding,” Founder Quentin Weisbuch tells us. Circles and sinuous shapes lead the conversation in the resulting identity, as well as the custom ‘M’ logo that sits pride of place on the storefront. Steeped in a Memphis-esque charm, these wobbly shapes can be spotted on the menu board – where colour and patterns are used to highlight certain dishes – takeaway bags, and matchbooks, while some are even sandwiched in the wordmark between ‘TACO’ and ‘MESA.’ To offset the decorative flourish of the rounded shapes, the team chose GT Flexa by Grilli Type as the hero typeface for its “straight and contemporary letterforms,” says Weisbuch, bringing a bit of balance to the bright, luminous world of Taco Mesa.