Located in a Midtown Manhattan neighborhood where culture meets commerce, HAONOW is a new Chinese restaurant founded by the team behind New York’s well-known HAO NOODLE. With a diverse selection of traditional dim sum and inventive stews, it offers New Yorkers a warm, comforting fast-casual option—while its inclusive, open atmosphere adds fresh energy to the block.
“Relaxed, approachable, healthy, and steaming hot”—these were the feelings and values HAONOW set out to communicate from day one. Building on these insights, we created a complete visual identity system for the restaurant. From a steamer-basket-inspired logo, to a friendly handwritten-style wordmark, and a bright, health-forward color palette, the system is designed to feel at home in an American neighborhood restaurant context—while delivering a sense of warmth and familiarity. Ultimately, it helps build a friendly relationship between the brand and its community, extending HAONOW’s possibilities beyond food and service.
Lift the steamer lid just slightly, and a rush of steam and aroma spills out—arguably the most tempting moment in dim sum. We distilled this scene into a half-open steamer basket as the core graphic form, shaping the letters to feel plump and gently leaning on one another, as if capturing dumplings steaming to perfection inside the basket.
The inverted triangle at the center is derived from the tone mark in the Chinese pronunciation of “Hao” (好). It nods to the restaurant’s cultural roots while giving the logo stronger balance—and a more memorable signature.
We created a bespoke Latin typeface for HAONOW. Its uppercase characters draw from a handwritten feel—seemingly casual at first glance, yet carefully refined through repeated trials of joins, terminals, and stroke transitions to strike a balance between readability and playfulness. In use, it performs strongly across touchpoints, from in-store menus to the website.
More importantly, it quickly narrows the psychological distance between the brand and its customers: this is a place that cares about quality, without ever feeling pretentious.