Arby’s is an American fast-food restaurant chain founded on July 23, 1964, when brothers Forrest and Leroy Raffel opened the first location in Boardman, Ohio, under a glowing neon cowboy hat sign. The name Arby’s derives from the initials R.B., standing for Raffel Brothers, not for “roast beef” as is sometimes assumed. The chain is currently part of Inspire Brands, a multi-brand restaurant company formed in 2018 after Arby’s Restaurant Group completed its acquisition of Buffalo Wild Wings. [1] [2]
Design and History
The Arby’s logo has centered on a cowboy hat since the brand’s founding. The Raffel brothers originally wanted to name the concept “Big Tex,” but that name was already taken by an Akron business. The Texan roots implied by that original choice are expressed through the giant 10-gallon hat adopted as the chain’s signature logo when the first restaurant opened in 1964. [2]
For decades the logo remained largely unchanged, featuring a flat, light red cowboy hat with a hand-drawn appearance. In October 2012, Arby’s rolled out a brand relaunch with a “modernized” logo, a new tagline of “Slicing Up Freshness,” and a website refresh. The revamp was the work of Adrienne Weiss Corporation and Alcone Marketing with Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which had been named Arby’s agency of record in February of that year. [3] [4]
While the iconic ten-gallon hat remained, the 2012 update introduced a darker shade of red, a smaller and more modern-looking font on the brim, and a glossy 3D extrusion effect. [5] Reactions were immediately negative. Critics called the logo a “travesty,” “forced,” and “half-baked,” and a Brand New poll of 3,600 individuals found that 93 percent disliked the update. [3]
Just over a year later, Arby’s introduced another new logo at its National Franchise Conference in October 2013. The new mark replaced the 3D version with a flat, 2D design featuring bold red lettering reminiscent of the chain’s original lettering and hat. It began appearing in print advertising, coupons, point-of-purchase collateral, and merchandising materials in January 2014, with restaurant signs updating on a rolling schedule. [3] The 2013 logo retained the hand-drawn style of the pre-2012 logo but compressed it into a more compact form, with the cowboy hat smaller than before and the letters blockier. [6]
Meaning and Symbolism
The cowboy hat logo reflects the “Wild West” nature of the restaurant, a theme tied to the brand’s original concept. The first Arby’s restaurants were housed in curvilinear Conestoga wagon-style buildings with wood and stone decor, reinforcing the Western identity that the hat symbol carries forward. [2] The hat has remained a constant through multiple rebrands, surviving the 2012 and 2013 logo changes as the brand’s most recognizable element. [2]
Typography and Design
Typography has been a distinguishing feature across Arby’s logo iterations. The pre-2012 logo used a condensed slab serif typeface that filled the hat properly, described by branding blog Brand New as “cheesy typography” that was nonetheless “a very nice, condensed bit of slab serif.” The 2012 redesign replaced this with a sans-serif typeface featuring a lowercase “a” and a large, shiny apostrophe, a change that drew criticism. [5] The 2013 logo that followed returned to a bolder, serifed lettering style reminiscent of the chain’s original wordmark. [3]
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