All about the branding

Alicia Robinson

Some people focus on the bigger picture, but at Newport Beach design

firm On the Edge, it’s all about details.

The firm’s marketing and design services have been used by a

number of area restaurants, including David Wilhelm’s French eatery

Chat Noir and his latest venture, Rouge.

If you’re wondering exactly what On the Edge does, pick up a drink

coaster from the new Sutra Lounge in Costa Mesa, or check out Sutra’s

website. The firm works with restaurant developers and interior

designers to “brand” their products by creating logos, planning

opening events and advertising, and designing the details that get a

restaurant remembered, from matchboxes to billboards.

“We usually start from nothing,” On the Edge President Jeff Gasper

said. “We’ll do the logos and the menus and the business cards.”

A Costa Mesa native, Gasper left an advertising agency in 1988

with a partner to start their own marketing and design business, and

they quickly tasted success working with the food industry.

They’ve worked with larger chains including Mimi’s and El Pollo

Loco as well as the smaller, one-of-a-kind dining spots.

Once they define exactly what the client wants, On the Edge’s six

full-time designers hit the books. For Wilhelm’s French restaurants,

they checked out French fonts and color schemes, and for Sutra they

looked up aphrodisiacs, On the Edge Vice President Gina Mims said.

“That was something we had never done before, so we now have every

Kama Sutra book known to man,” she said.

One of the firm’s current projects is 3-thirty-3, a restaurant

that will combine Bali influences with modern themes in the former

Yankee Tavern location on Coast Highway.

While the designers like to have at least three months to develop

the concept for a restaurant, they can do it in less time if they’re

pressed. Restaurateurs often choose to use a firm like On the Edge

because they want the expertise of someone with a little distance

from the project, Mims said.

Branding is essential in today’s restaurant business because the

competition is fierce, Gasper said.

“The most successful concepts these days are paying a lot of

attention to the overall experience that they’re providing,” Gasper

said. “Those that don’t pay attention to it just simply don’t

survive.”