Quick answer
A £129 takeaway logo from us is built for the order trade. It has to read as a thumbnail on Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo, print in one colour on a paper bag or burger box and glow on a lightbox at night. All three layouts are in the fixed fee.
This page is for chicken shops, burger bars, kebab houses, chippies, Chinese and Indian takeaways and any counter where most orders leave in a bag. A sit-down restaurant has a different brief (see our restaurant logo guide). Here we cover the thumbnail, the packaging, the lit fascia, the leaflet through the door and the cliché that makes half the high street look the same.
The thumbnail decides the order
On a delivery app, a hungry customer scrolls past dozens of listings in a few seconds. Your logo appears as a small tile, usually sitting on or beside a big food photo, and each platform crops and resizes it in its own way, sometimes into a circle and sometimes into a rounded square. A logo designed only for a shop sign rarely survives that.
- Design an icon that reads at tiny size. A short name, a single initial or a bold symbol on a solid background, with nothing important near the edges in case of a circular crop.
- Use a background colour that is not a food colour. Burger browns and chip golds blend into the food photo next to the tile. A strong blue, black, white or a saturated pink stands apart.
- Use the same tile everywhere. The apps, Google, your own ordering site and the bag sticker should all show the same icon, so a customer who saw you on one recognises you on another.
What a takeaway logo has to print on
| Item | Usual printing | What the logo needs |
|---|---|---|
| Paper carrier and food bags | One or two colours, or a stamp and sticker on plain kraft | A solid one-colour version with no fine lines |
| Burger boxes, chip cones and wrap sleeves | One or two colours on card, often curved or folded | A compact mark that survives a fold line |
| Greaseproof wrapping paper | A small repeat pattern in one colour | An icon that tiles well |
| Lid and seal stickers | Full colour, small round or square labels | The icon, centred, with clear space |
| Illuminated fascia or lightbox | Backlit panel or built-up letters | Clean shapes that do not bleed when lit |
| Menu leaflet | Full colour, folded | A horizontal lockup for the cover and a small mark for every panel |
Packaging rules have also changed what you print on. In England, expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drink containers are banned along with single-use plastic cutlery and some plates, bowls and trays, so the classic foam clamshell is gone. Cardboard, kraft and pulp containers take ink differently, and pale colours sink into brown card, which is another reason to keep a dark one-colour version of the logo.
The lightbox after dark
A takeaway does much of its trade after the shops around it have shut, so the fascia is read at night. Backlit panels and illuminated letters change how a logo behaves:
- Thin strokes and tight gaps glow together into a blur from across the road, so the lit version needs bolder shapes and more space between letters.
- Large areas of white become a glaring box. A dark panel with lit letters is usually easier to read and kinder to the neighbours.
- Colours shift when lit. Test the logo colour against a backlit sample before the sign is made, because a deep red can turn orange.
Illuminated signs often need advertisement consent from the council as well as the landlord’s agreement. In England, Schedule 3 of the 2007 advertisement regulations (Class 4B) only grants automatic consent to a lit shop sign under strict conditions, such as static lighting with only the letters lit, never the background panel. Our shopfront and signage guide covers the practical side.
The leaflet that lands on the doormat
For many takeaways the menu leaflet is still the biggest marketing spend. It sits on fridges for months, so the logo on its cover has to be recognisable from across the kitchen. Put the horizontal lockup and your phone number big on the front, repeat a small version of the icon on each inside panel, and keep the app tile on the back so customers can find you online. Our Flyer and Leaflet Design service (£89) handles the folded door-drop leaflet, and Menu Design (£79 per side) covers the counter menu, both laid out from your logo files.
Boxes worth photographing
A burger box opened on a car bonnet or a dessert tub on a sofa can end up on social media. Customers photograph packaging that looks deliberate. That does not need full-colour printing: one strong colour, used confidently, with the icon on the lid and a short line inside the flap, is enough to be recognised. Small touches add up, such as a thank-you line inside the lid or a sticker that seals the bag, and Packaging Design (£99) produces the print artwork.
Red and yellow, the chicken and the flame
Walk down most high streets and the takeaways blur together: red and yellow, a cartoon chicken, a flame, a chef’s hat, a name ending in “Express” or “Hut”. Red and yellow are popular for a reason, as they are warm and easy to read, but when every rival uses them they stop helping you stand out. Some ways out:
- Keep the warmth, change the colour. A hot pink, a deep green or black with one bright accent is still appetising and far more distinctive.
- Draw your own dish, not a generic one. If you are known for one thing, a simple drawing of that thing can be the mark, as long as it is yours and not a stock symbol.
- Let the name do it. A short, bold wordmark that fills a tile is often stronger than any picture.
Several cuisines under one roof
Plenty of takeaways sell pizza, kebabs, burgers and fried chicken from one kitchen. Trying to show all of it in the logo produces a crowded badge that reads as nothing. Pick the dish customers already come to you for, or choose a name and mark that do not depend on cuisine at all, and let the menu and the app listing show the range. If you run separate delivery-only brands from the same kitchen, each needs its own tile, because the apps list them separately and customers judge each one on its own.
An example from our studio: Urraca Street Tacos
Urraca is an identity from our studio, a street-food taco brand. Urraca is Spanish for magpie, the bird that steals, so the symbol is a flat black magpie striding off with a taco in its beak. It puts all three ideas above together: a hot pink and yellow taco instead of the usual red, a picture of the actual product rather than a chef’s hat, and a short bold name that fills a delivery tile. The same tile logic suits a kebab shop or a chicken counter: one product drawn your own way, a colour that is not the street’s red, and a name short enough to fill the square.
Calories, allergens and franchise rules
Most independent takeaways are not covered by calorie labelling. In England the rules apply to businesses with 250 or more employees, but GOV.UK’s calorie labelling guidance counts a franchisee as part of the franchisor. If you trade under a franchise name, the franchisor’s brand rules and its labelling duties come with it, and you will usually be using their logo, not commissioning your own. For independents, the menu still needs space for allergen information, so design the leaflet and menu board with room for it rather than squeezing it in after the logo is placed.
A quick tile check before you upload
Before the new logo goes onto the apps, run it through a short test. It takes five minutes and saves weeks of a tile nobody can read.
| Test | How to do it | A pass looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Thumbnail size | Shrink the icon to the size of a fingernail on your phone | You can still tell what it is |
| Circle crop | Place it inside a circle | Nothing important is cut off |
| Food photo | Put it next to a photo of your best-selling dish | The tile stands apart from the food |
| Dark mode | View it on a black background | It does not vanish or glow oddly |
| Competitors | Line it up with the five nearest takeaways on the app | Yours is the one you notice first |
What £129 covers for a takeaway
Our takeaway logo design costs £129 and includes all three layouts: horizontal for the fascia and leaflet cover, stacked for boxes and bags, and icon-only for the delivery app tile, stickers and wrapping paper. You get unlimited concepts, unlimited revisions within your brief, a single-colour version for bags and greaseproof, a 3D mockup and every file format your sign maker and packaging printer will want. The copyright is yours on delivery. For a website that takes orders directly, the takeaway section of our website cost guide explains the options, and our pricing page lists every fee.
Getting the new look onto the street
Change the app tiles first, because they reach the most customers and cost nothing to update. Then order stickers and a stamp for plain bags, so the brand is on every order within days. The leaflet goes next, the lightbox when the landlord and the council have agreed it, and printed boxes once you are sure of the sizes you use most. First concepts arrive within 48 hours. Customers rate us 4.8/5 Excellent. If the fascia is booked or the leaflet is going to the printer soon, start your takeaway logo now and put the deadline in the brief.
