Outback Steakhouse is a popular American casual dining restaurant chain known for its bold, flavorful menu inspired by the Australian Outback. However, the chain’s cuisine is distinctly American, offering a blend of steakhouse classics like ribs, chicken, seafood, and pasta, with a focus on hearty portions and bold seasoning.
Outback Steakhouse was founded in 1988 by a group of friends—Chris T. Sullivan, Robert D. Basham, and Timothy Gannon—in Tampa, Florida. Inspired by the adventurous spirit of the Australian Outback, the founders aimed to create a casual dining experience centered around hearty portions and bold flavors, though the cuisine itself remained largely American. Outback quickly gained recognition for its signature dishes, such as the Bloomin’ Onion, a deep-fried appetizer, and its wide variety of seasoned steaks cooked to order.
Outback Steakhouse is also recognized for its casual, welcoming atmosphere, making it a go-to spot for family dinners, gatherings, and casual nights out. The restaurant’s commitment to quality ingredients and generous hospitality has fueled its growth both in the U.S.A. and internationally.
The use of Australian branding gave the restaurant a distinctive identity, even though the food remained rooted in American steakhouse tradition. This branding created an approachable, adventurous image that resonated with customers, helping the chain to expand quite quickly. Throughout the 1990s, Outback Steakhouse rapidly expanded across the United States, becoming one of the most recognized names in the casual dining industry. The chain later ventured into international markets, bringing its unique concept to countries across the globe.
Throughout the years Outback Steakhouse chain has managed to maintain its core commitment to generous portions, bold flavors, and a pleasant dining experience, making it a lasting fixture in American dining culture.
What is Outback Steakhouse?
Outback Steakhouse is the name of a famous American chain of Australian-themed restaurants, which today has more than 1300 locations around the world, including Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. It all started in 1988 with a small restaurant in Tampa, Florida.
In terms of visual identity, Outback Steakhouse is quite a stable chain; it has been using a very recognizable style of the banner since 1988, and only in 2021 did the company decide to try something new, not replacing the original version, but adding an option to it.
The original Outback Steakhouse logo, designed in 1988, is still used by most of the restaurants of the chain today. It is a two-leveled bright red lettering, written against a plain white background, with the upper line enlarged and emboldened, executed in a designer typeface with uneven edges, while the bottom level is set in a lightweight font with small capitals.
Another version of the logo, created in the same 1988, was more ornate, with the red lettering enclosed inside a rectangular plate and placed at the bottom of a graphical image depicting a kangaroo, drawn inside a rhomboid lilac frame. This badge was used by the chain up to the beginning of the 2000th.
In 2006 the original Outback Steakhouse logo got a small addition — an abstract landscape contour, drawn in solid strokes and placed above the lettering part. The red shade of the composition got a bit more intense than in the version from 1988.
In 2021 the designers have created a completely different concept for the Outback Steakhouse visual identity. The landscape emblem was redrawn in white, with small cut-outs in the peaks of the heels, while the inscription was rewritten in a modern and sleek contoured sans-serif typeface, also in white. Both elements are now set on a brownish background with an abstract blurred pattern.
The bold sans-serif typeface from the original Outback Steakhouse logo is set in a custom typeface, which looks very similar to such commercial fonts as Publicity Gothictrade, or Publicity Headline. As for the lettering from the modern logo of the chain, it uses a more distinctive designer type, which has somewhat in common with Gravesend Sans.
As for the color palette of the Outback Steakhouse visual identity, the primary version contains bright red and white, standing for passion and strength, while the main shade of the secondary version is brown, a symbol of warmth and coziness.