Modern mezze is on the menu at ilili, a fine dining restaurant offering Lebanese and Mediterranean dishes at locations in New York and Washington, DC. Pentagram created a brand identity and messaging for the family-owned restaurant that pays homage to its Lebanese roots with a vibrant visual language as bold, colorful and delicious as the cuisine.
ilili opened its first restaurant in NYC in 2007; when chef and owner Philippe Massoud launched the DC outpost in 2021, he wanted to introduce a brand identity that would set ilili apart as the premier destination for Levantine cuisine in the US. (The Pentagram team was already familiar with ilili’s flavorful fare––the New York restaurant is not far from our office in the Flatiron District.)
Drawing on the Massoud family’s heritage, the identity is a love letter to Lebanon’s golden age in the 1950s and 1960s, before the civil war. The branding is both nostalgic and modern, for a restaurant that is elegant and upscale, but also warm, welcoming and authentic. The system is designed to work in tandem with the evocative interior design by Nasser Nakib, which references opulent Phoenician palaces and the lush gardens and courtyards of Lebanon.
Along with the identity, Pentagram created the positioning “Elevated Lebanese” to describe ilili’s unique take on the cuisine. “Ilili” is an Arabic word that colloquially means “Tell me”. Lebanese meals are traditionally meant to be shared, and Pentagram added conversation starters like “Tell me your hopes,” “Tell me your dreams,” “Tell me your wishes,” etc.
The ilili logo references Arabic calligraphy with sharp, clean lines that look like they were drawn with the square nib of a pen. (It helps that the name is a perfectly balanced palindrome.) The three small “i”s are a nod to the Massoud family––a father and two brothers––and also resemble waving flags, for the owners’ pride. The upward slant captures the buzzing, optimistic energy of the restaurants.
The diamond-shaped dots of the “i”s double as the building blocks for the visual language of the identity. These forms are found in Levantine dishes like baklava and kibbeh, and also tie into the continuous geometry of the ilili interiors with their patterned floor tiles, textiles and latticework. The identity extends the diamonds to a system of icons, and into graphic motifs like decorative borders that bring to mind air mail envelopes.
The brand typeface is Nib (by Colophon), a friendly serif with chiseled letters that echo the angled forms of the logo. The team also imagined a history for the restaurant with logo variations designed in the vernacular of past eras.
For a handmade touch, the designers commissioned the Lebanese illustrator Sasha Haddad to create nostalgic line drawings with the feeling of old stamps and postcards. Illustrated maps of Beirut and historic Phoenician wine routes appear in the dinner menu and wine list, respectively. Haddad also created custom signs for the restaurant interiors and illustrations for the recipe booklets in Goldbelly boxes.
The bright colors of the brand palette are inspired by and carry the names of ingredients and the Levantine locale: Mediterranean Sea (blue), extra virgin (green), sunshine, salt, tomato, and hummus. Accents of gold foil tie into the luxe interiors.
These elements all come together in a vivid brand identity that helps transport diners on an unforgettable journey through the rich flavors of Lebanese cuisine.
