The American restaurant chain Chili’s has modified its logotype not less than three times since 1975 when the original design was introduced. With almost every new version, the chili pepper was growing more visible.
Meaning and history
1975
The first location started working in a converted postal station on Greenville Avenue in Dallas, Texas. The original Chili’s logo featured the name of the brand in rather plump and playful lowercase letters. You could feel the casualness of handwriting in it. The apostrophe was replaced by a tiny chili pepper.
1975 – 1983
The redesign of the brand’s visual identity brought the logo most recognized today. The font has been changed but had a lot in common with the previous version. The letter “h” was joined with the “l” by extending the leg of the “h”. The pepper also got its a red and green color palette.
1983 – 2002
The letters lost some of their casual style, although they still looked pretty friendly. The “H” and “L” were connected with each other. The distance between the letters (especially the second “I” and the “S”) grew smaller, while the writing “Grill & Bar” appeared inside an ellipsoid below. The writing was red.
2002 – 2011
The writing “Grill & Bar” was gone. The space between the letters grew somewhat larger. The pepper was redrawn, due to which it got a more playful and appetizing look.
In addition to the primary wordmark described above, the company also introduced an alternative emblem where the word “Chili” was replaced with a drawing. Apart from the flat version, a 3D one was also used.
2011 – Today
The company began rolling out an updated version of its chili pepper logo in the fall of 2011. The pepper was redrawn. Now, the stalk formed the apostrophe, due to which the design grew cleaner. The green top of the pepper disappeared, which also worked for the same purpose.
The 2011 Chili’s logo was developed by Tesser Inc, a firm that was also behind the Del Taco rebrand.