Shakey’s New Logo: Ye Olde Pizza Parlor Tries Retro

Posted: Monday, January 7, 2013

Shakey’s has been operating in the Philippines for so long that you’d mistakenly think they are a home-grown franchise. They actually started in the Sacramento California in 1954 and was known for their pizza, beer and jazz mix offerings.

Shakey’s began to expand outside the United States with the opening of a restaurant in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on February 15, 1968. Expansion then went south with the opening of Mexico City restaurant on May 7, 1968. The first Japanese restaurant opened in Osaka, Japan on July 26, 1976. Expansion continued with a restaurant in Makati, Philippines in 1975.

Shakey’s branches in the Philippines at one point outnumbered even those in the USA. It’s like saying Jollibee has more branches in the USA than the Philippines. A big feat and shows that Filipinos really love eating American food ever since (even Wonder Woman came to eat here)

This new logo was adopted by Shakey’s USA first and is just presently being rolled into new Shakey’s branches in the country (saw a new branch being constructed along Shaw-Sta.Mesa route). The old Shakey’s western typeface and the red hat-like border are one of those things that you could just glance and instantly recognize. It didn’t look too-polished but the brand suited its ‘good-old’ pizza parlor feel.

The new logo removes any traces of the old one and introduces a slabby typeface that actually looks like it’s shaking. The ‘Established in 1954’ badge is somewhat an opposite from the typeface it represents below. It now actually looks like the old Popeyes Chicken logo at first glance.

The iconic red backdrop and the hat-like border was changed to a black and yellow oblong-shaped container. While dropping the tested shapes was risky, The circular shape and dark colors might also work and is also reminiscent of retro jukebox and neon stylings from the 70’s.

I also don’t think the thin strokes used throughout the logo especially the Shakey’s word works best. They could have filled up the gaps between S, K, A and E with solid white instead of leaving small seeping black lines showing what’s underneath.

Looks good but it could have been better I guess. That’s my take, what’s yours? What do you think of Shakey’s new logo?

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