Taco Bell. The Taco bell logo is a growingly popular icon for Mexican food across the UK and USA. With over 7,000 locations in the U.S this fast-food chain is spreading quickly. The Bell in the logo is obviously it’s signature icon, placed on a purple background the clean white bell almost looks like a cut out. The Bell holds homage to the founder Glen Bell. Underneath this is the black nameplate, uniform and bold, in a smart sans-serif typeface with clean traditional contours. The font they used up until 2016 was Corpus Gothic Alternative, quite an expensive font. But it was then replaced to a minimalist sans serif font as the gothic font was outdated. The font has a low contrast and low width but a thick weight to it, making it bold yet simplistic. Even though the Bell features a combination of two shades of purple, light and dark, the wordmark is in plain black. Connoting it’s aimed more toward adults and young adults as it’s less colourful than other fast-food restaurants. The modern typeface and purple colour palette are what separates Taco Bell from other fast-food chains. As it’s less well known in the UK, an American fast-food restaurant that isn’t aimed at families like the other ones might be appealing to more adult consumers. 

Chipotle. Chipotle is an American company with strong Mexican influences. Amazingly popular in the U.S, it’s now slowly gaining popularity in Europe with 12 stores and more to open. The Chipotle logo is compelling, it’s bright red and fiery. Featuring the famous chilli pepper which has an artistic swirl design along with the company’s name it sits on a pallet of red and brown.  The original emblem had a handwritten font similar to papyrus typeface. However, it looked cheap and tacky. The new font is a custom one but can be compared to Gotham Bold, created by Tobias Frere-Jones. This font looks classy and modern in comparison to their old emblem back in 1993. The typeface is in all capitals, it’s light weighted and has low contrast. Making it still stand out without being overly colourful or too busy.

After some variations the current logo is two circles, one inside the other, representing entirety and perpetuity. Suggesting the company’s promise to endlessly feed and satisfy their customers. The pepper is sat in the middle of the two circles a symbol for, literal food but also spice and the country of Mexico as chillies are often associated with their food. The red choice in branding is appropriate as red is a passionate colour that stimulates the taste bud to desire food.