Makan
Foreign Policy Design• Date added
• Date added
MAKAN is a Singaporean restaurant designed for Mexico.
Singapore-based strategy and brand design office Foreign Policy developed the visual identity for MAKAN, bridging two vernacular worlds without leaning on clichés.
Client
Makan
Year
2023
Creative Director
Yah-Leng Yu
Art Director
Sylvester Tan
Designer
Sylvester Tan
Typefaces in Use
“Find the visual parallels between two cultures, and you don't need a translation. Familiarity does the work.”
The identity begins with vernacular, not “Asia” as a style. It draws from the everyday objects, materials, colours, and patterns that shape real life. From Singapore, this includes utilitarian ceramics, shophouse typography, market packaging, floral trays, and rooster bowls. From Mexico, the same perspective is applied: street markets, hand-painted signs, tiles, colour-blocked walls, domestic patterns, and the visual confidence of public space.
Shared elements across both cultures form an entry point and the foundation of the identity, centred on bold colour, roosters, and floral patterns. MAKAN resists the homogenised language of “global” restaurants. It stays grounded, specific, and legible, presenting Singapore as something spoken with a Mexican accent.
“I went to the streets, the markets, the shophouses. The old-school hand-drawn type and the quirky mix of typefaces and hand lettering that nobody designed but everyone recognises. That became our design language.”
Foreign Policy Design
Foreign Policy is a Singapore-based strategy and brand design office founded by Yah‑Leng Yu and Arthur Chin. Working across naming, identity, spatial, and editorial design, the studio helps brands speak with clarity and purpose — translating cultural signals into ideas that launch, pivot, and amplify future aspirations.
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