Following up on its 106-year anniversary last week, Ivar’s Seafood Restaurants unveiled a new logo.
Most notably, the cursive “Ivar’s” has been dropped from the company’s identity, leaving behind a clean blue wave simply complemented by the number 1938 to denote the restaurant’s founding year.
The logo will be rolled out to all of Ivar’s full-service restaurants, Ivar’s Seafood Bars and stadium locations in the coming months. In addition to being prominently displayed on the more than 8.7 million to-go cups of chowder served annually, the logo will be integrated into all future marketing campaigns and launched on a line of apparel and lifestyle products.
The company said a fresh logo will help evolve Ivar’s to a point that feels more suitable and approachable for today’s diner. The wave is symbolic of the restaurant’s ability to adapt as a brand while still expressing a love of fresh Northwest seafood.
“Ivar’s is taking a risk by dropping its synonymous cursive company name from their logo. But our extensive research showed people simply don’t read as much as they used to especially cursive, given people’s tendency to text and microblog, it was no longer relevant,” said Seth Godin, brand strategist at Gotcha Creative & Branding, which designed the new logo. “Once we opted to drop the name, everything literally opened up and enabled us to create a new, clean design with ample negative space that gives each element room to breathe. Because Ivar’s is intrinsically linked to refreshing waterfront dining, it was very fitting. This new execution will resonate with the restaurants’ existing clientele, while attracting new diners as well.”
Ivar’s has two large-scale logo unveilings planned. The first is based on public feedback in renaming Qwest Field to Ivar’s Chowder Bowl. Subsequently a giant chowder cup adorned with the new logo will be raised to the field’s exterior in the coming month. The second will be in the fall as a large scale Halloween corn maze replica, in which maze-goers will find their way out of the undulating waves of grain cut in the form of Ivar’s new look. Ivar’s infamous dancing clams will be on hand to greet fans.
