Iconic Austin Restaurants Get a Refreshed Online Presence

Updating a brand for an established and beloved local restaurant comes with a certain amount of pressure. Add to that, the challenge of creating something that can hold its own in one of the nation’s hottest markets for signature dining experiences. Now multiply that by four.

That was the challenge Hai Hospitality—the restaurant group behind the wildly popular and rapidly expanding concepts Uchi, Uchiko, and Uchibā - presented to The Graphic Standard, an Austin-based design studio specialising in branding and digital experience design. Hai and TGS began their journey with a shared objective; to create brands that were more closely aligned to the people, service, and environments experienced by their guests, every day.

Uchi, Uchiko, Uchibā

The Uchi family presented the biggest challenge. How best to create a design system that could be shared by three different, yet complementary brands that would also provide enough flexibility for each brand to express its own distinct personality?

Inspired by the balance and formal precision of Japanese design, the team at The Graphic Standard devised a grid-based system that became the connective tissue and repeatable framework that tied all three of the brand websites together. Brand-specific colour palettes, patterns, and textures as well as imagery of signature dishes, desserts, and cocktails give each site its own unique expression.

Hai Hospitality

In collaboration with their in-house design team, The Graphic Standard strived to capture the parent brand’s playful yet refined approach to creating unforgettable dining experiences. Utilising an organic grid, imaginative illustrations, and a range of rich food and people photography, the website immerses visitors into the world of Hai Hospitality.

The Result

Four visually stunning, meticulously crafted, content-managed, and SEO-friendly websites, designed and developed in eight months.