I'm rebranding a cafe for a university project. What are your opinions on this concept?

Good concept. Working with arrows is challenging and rewarding. Especially when they are subliminal like the FedEx logo. See it without seeing it.

The concept with the >> arrows feels kind of obvious and somewhat cheesy/cheap.. Also i get connotations about being stressed out (in a bad way). Maybe you can pull it off somehow, but im somewhat sceptical, I would try to put the thinking cap back on.. I guess you wanted frank critique so sorry if it’s too harsh.. If you decide to pursue the idea I wish you lots of luck :) Maybe you can name the store FFWD..

Thanks so much for your feedback RealEyes and nisse. Really helpful!
nisse, only just realized the connotations about being stressed out with the >> when you pointed it out, so thank you. Maybe softer looking arrows would solve that problem? Hmm.

The cheesiness worries me slightly, but I’m struggling to think of a better concept for a place that sells quick healthy snacks. A stickman running would probably be even more cheesy, ha ha.

I like @nisse‘s idea of FFWD… but turn the W sideways and you have two arrows.

Just an idea for the name, maybe Fresh & Fast, or Fresh Fast Forward? Three arrows with a slight up curve with bowls or plates with one of your foods on each.

—my favorite logo gone wrong

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doesn’t look stressful to me. I think it’s very recognizable and could work fine with reverse lettering “healthy” “fast” inside the arrows. I’d stay away from squiggly pasta shapes though. That has misinterpretation possibilities.

I mean the whole fast forward concept doesn’t associate well with food and eating. Nobody wants to jam down their lunch sandwich at 5x the normal rate unless they have to, which is probably why you haven’t seen this concept/design before for lunch/fast-food restaurants.

Also, try not to base the entire logo on the schtick. The funny little extra should be cleverly hidden in the logo, and be a “bonus” for anyone who finds it (like in the FedEx logo), but basing the entire logo design and concept on the gimmick is not the way to go. Try not to outsmart yourself ;)

For example calling the store “Fresh and Fast With Delight” (or prefferably something better, but you get the point) would be adequate concealment to make the FFWD thing less obvious, in case you want it concealed at all, and at the same time more rewarding to discover.

Or you could go the other way and just call it “FFWD” and be completely obvious about it, but a half concealed cleverness just makes the customer think “Wow, they didn’t put a lot of thought into this, I got that in like 2 milliseconds, they must be stupid”.. What i’m saying is that it’s kind of dangerous to try to embed a cleverness into a logo, you need to make sure that the cleverness is actually clever, or the concept will fall flat.

I would focus on creating an sense of getting healthy food fast/faster so they have more time to enjoy the good healthy food. Time is the precious commodity here and selling the thought of having more time to enjoy good healthy food would be what would be my suggestion.