Branding & Identity · Digital Marketing

Misión Cotija

A restaurant-bar in Cuautla, Morelos, built on the flavours of Michoacán. Loved by the people who already knew it, and invisible to everyone else.

Sector: Restaurant / F&B
Where: Cuautla, Morelos
Year: 2013
Duration: 26 weeks

The Misión Cotija sign on the restaurant facade at dusk

A Mision Cotija coaster beside a glass of hibiscus water

A Mision Cotija hang tag resting on linen

A chef's jacket and service napkin carrying the mark

Takeaway bag, coffee cup and napkins carrying the mark

A napkin banded with the mark on a set plate

00/01

The diagnosis

Problem

The logo felt outdated, and past branding efforts never came together into a consistent system.

Goal

A visual identity that reflected the restaurant's quality and tradition, in a system that could scale across every guest touchpoint.

We ran a full institutional audit — based on Norberto Chaves' brand identity framework — covering the restaurant's reality, identity, image and communication, combined with surveys of both staff and customers.

01
No defined identity texts — mission, values, positioning — appeared anywhere in the guest experience. Nothing reinforced why Misión Cotija was different.
02
Guests were loyal and recurring, but arrived through recommendation or by passing by, not through any consistent brand recall.
03
Staff wanted a stronger sense of identity too. Most had never been trained on the restaurant's values, and uniforms and internal materials were inconsistent.

The project was never "a new logo". It was a coherent identity system, inside and out.

00/02

The system, up close

One impression, four decisions. Move through them to see what each surface had to carry.

The menu
The mark at full size, where the identity is introduced. Awaiting the decision behind it.
The coaster
The mark reduced to its smallest application. Awaiting the decision behind it.
The business card
The mark against the colour band that carries it. Awaiting the decision behind it.
The stationery
The system extended past the table. Awaiting the decision behind it.

00/03

What changed

This section is waiting on real figures. It is the part of a case study that argues for the next project, and it is the only part that cannot be written from the design files.

Awaiting: What the restaurant measured after the rollout
Awaiting: What the staff reported
Awaiting: What is still in use today, twelve years on