YO! SUSHI

Creating an edible, shareable brand experience

With more than 70 restaurants, Yo! Sushi is one of the largest sushi brands outside Japan. We were asked us to help launch 12 new dishes over the course of a year, each with an unusual twist on street food. The brief was simple: sell the idea that you only live once. Each dish was available for a limited time, so the launches needed to impress and encourage people to try something new. From the J-Dog to Japple Pie, the result was something fun, fast and original.

Our output included…
Experience strategy
Visual identity
Copywriting
Art direction
Social media guidance
Photography
Media production

We created a high-energy concept to launch YOLO and came up with the idea of developing shareable experiences around each dish. We turned YOLO into the #yoment. Treating each monthly launch as a moment in time gave us the opportunity to engage by inspiring people to share their favourite #yoments across social media. In addition to the main identity, every dish was given its own identity, including temporary tattoos for the staff and customers to apply.

A collection of Yolo stamp illustration designs from the brand identity - including dog and apple.
Main stamp design illustration consisting of Yolo logo incased in intertwining circles with smiley faces on orange background

We worked closely with Yo! Sushi’s executive chef to translate his bold ideas into equally bold assets. Each dish was designed to be fun, interactive and eaten with your hands, whether it was injecting an apple pie and ice cream cone with a syringe of caramel, or squirting a keyring-sized bottle of Sriracha hot sauce on a Japanese-style hot dog. Using playful design and art direction, we let the novelty of the food lead our approach.

Close up photo of a digital camera’s viewfinder, showing a collection of lucky cats in a studio with an orange backdrop
A photo of a hand holding an ice cream cone with a syringe of caramel, an example of the food design and art direction
Bold typographic treatment (now or never) with incorporated hand drawn elements showing tone of voice from Yolo project
Logo (yolo!) repeated in typographic style mimicking a crossword
Photographic and art direction treatment, a hand sprinkling an open packet of seasoning
Photographic and art direction treatment, a tattooed arm holding out an open bag of fries

Our aim was to create a unique feeling that was still very much part of Yo! Sushi’s identity. The campaign lines ‘Seize the dish’ and ‘Now or never’ were applied to literature, and the #yoment concept was used for window graphics, customisable T-shirts and point-of-sale to reinforce the social element. The identities for each dish used simple graphics designed to translate easily as stamps and temporary tattoos.

Close up photo of a production monitor on set showing 3 sets of feet all wearing orange socks with different shoes on
Photographic and art direction treatment, three different hands reaching out to grab food from an open box

See more of our work

Sea&I

James Eadie

The Run To

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