Leisure

Filthy Wings

Naughty Food – Nice High-Street Format

The Challenge

Translate a successful ghost-kitchen brand to the high street without losing its playful rebelliousness.

Our Response

The brand’s fiery self-confidence and unashamed wickedness captured – and caged – in a stark and irresistibly Instagrammable urban look.

Long Story Short

The transition from ghost kitchen to high street is smoother if you can retain the values that made the brand such a huge, straight-to-your-door, online success. So we wrapped Filthy Wings’ playful rebelliousness in a cloak of red-and-black, mesh-and-concrete devilishness. We gave the brand a look and feel that was as compelling in the real world as it had been online. The kiosk-like service counter is a nod to the street-food van and festival culture, the touch-screen ordering points remind visitors that the brand has its roots in the digital world. This is a restaurant format that works so well, Filthy Wings is poised for further expansion.

The Finer Details

Filthy Wings was the ghost kitchen that proved so successful it had to make the transition to the high street. The challenge for the brand was to retain its naughty-and-nice playfulness and citizen-of-nowhere rebelliousness when it put down permanent roots behind a sleek shopfront. Or two shopfronts, to be precise – in Wolverhampton and Castle Bromwich.

Luckily we had plenty of material to work with in Filthy Wings’ devil-may-care approach to food and life. Our treatment is at once slick and gritty. Signage is clear, service is fast and easy, but the look is dark, urban, and vaguely cage-like. This is food so wild and spicy, it has to be contained in a zone of concrete, mesh, and neon lighting. A black-and-red colour scheme and graphics on the walls add to the undercurrent of devilishness, while winged seats hint at the wings of the Filthy logo. For guests who want to flaunt their naughty or nice allegiances, there’s a push-button background for taking selfies sporting horns or halo – to style themselves as food beast or food saint on Instagram.

Filthy Wings’ ghost-kitchen roots are in the speedy service and digital kiosks away from the seating area. The layout keeps diners who value speed or leisure neatly apart.

The look is clearly working for Filthy Wings. Both branches are busy, and we’re working with the Filthy Wings team on further expansion.