Sonic Drive-In
Environment
Visual Systems
Back to the future
Sonic, America’s Drive-In, was founded in 1954 and had grown dramatically. In the mid-nineties, Sonic invited customers, franchisees, suppliers and Drive-in managers to a series of "Dream Team meetings to discuss Sonic’s future. The result was Sonic 2000–a multi-layered strategy to further unify the company in terms of a consistent brand identity, menu, products, packaging and service.
Challenges
Create a fun, high appeal restaurant prototype that revitalizes the customer experience at the point of sale
Ensure the key elements of the program can be retro-fitted to existing drive-ins
Enlist franchisees to embrace the program
Actions
Created the new "retro future" positioning and articulated the image attributes that would drive all design development
Designed the new atomically charged Sonic logo which serves as a bold beacon to welcome drivers
Reinterpreted the "classic drive-in" restaurant for today’s marketplace – with a curved canopy, car stalls, central patio, dramatic neon and fiber optic lighting and open kitchen
Added functional elements to accommodate today’s lifestyles including a drive-thru option and an outdoor family patio