Role: Lead Brand & Visual Designer Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign Timeline: 10–14 days

Vel’s Platter House is a vibrant, upbeat food brand offering homemade platters — from tortilla wraps and kebabs to sticky wings, samosas, and cupcakes. My goal was to create a playful, personality-driven brand identity that captures the warmth of homemade food, the excitement of fresh flavors, and the fun energy of the founder, Thandeka Nyathi.

This project allowed me to combine character illustration, strategic branding, and packaging-inspired design thinking to build a distinctive identity that stands out in the food market.

The biggest challenge was crafting a brand identity that balances fun, homemade energy with professional, trustworthy presentation. Vel’s Platter House required an identity system that:

Appeals to families and everyday customers

Works across social media, packaging, menus, and future merchandise

Feels lively and full of character without becoming childish

Adds mascots without losing brand coherence

I began by studying local platter brands, customer expectations, and visual styles commonly used in the food industry. Through discussions with the founder, we identified the core attributes of the brand: Warm, Fun, Family-Friendly, Fresh, Energetic, and Homemade.

I explored brand directions focusing on warmth, flavor, and personality—eventually developing a character-led identity featuring mascots of the brand’s hero items (tortilla, samosa, sticky wings, etc.). This became the signature element that sets Vel’s apart.

Logo Design: A friendly, bold wordmark that feels inviting and expressive. It conveys warmth and personality without losing structure.

Color Palette: Rich, appetizing palette featuring:

Warm Cream Beige (#f3d9b4) These colors help communicate flavor, comfort, and quality.

Wosker Demo for bold, expressive headings

Montserrat for clarity and professionalism in descriptions

Lobster 1.4 for playful call-outs and promotions

Mascot System: I designed and refined a set of illustrated mascots—Tortilla, Samosa, Sticky Wing—that give the brand life, charm, and character. These mascots are used across packaging mockups, social media, posters, and menus.

Brand Guidelines: A complete brand manual was developed to ensure consistency across all touchpoints, including logo usage, color applications, mascot rules, and tone of voice.

Instantly recognizable brand personality thanks to the custom mascots and bold styling Strong emotional connection through a fun, friendly tone Professional brand identity ready for real-world use on print, digital, and promotional materials

The brand successfully communicates excitement, personality, and love for cooking, making it memorable and market ready.

This has been one of my most enjoyable projects to date. Working on Vel’s Platter House allowed me to blend branding fundamentals with expressive illustration. The challenge was balancing fun and professionalism, something I achieved through strategic typography, warm colors, and consistent mascot design.

It reinforced how powerful character-led branding can be when creating emotional, memorable identities.

Logo Suite

Mascot Set (Samosa, Tortilla, Sticky Wing)

Color Palette & Typography System

Brand Guidelines PDF (please have a look below)

Social Media Templates

Packaging & Menu Mockups

Promotional Posters (Specials, Offers, Events)

Let’s turn your idea into something unforgettable. Start your branding journey with me below.

What the client said: "Working with Vezubuhle was honestly one of the BEST creative experiences I’ve ever had! I came in with a simple idea for my food business, and he turned it into a full, beautiful brand that feels alive, fun, and uniquely ME. From the logo to the mascots to the menus ,everything feels like Vel’s Platter House has its own"