Work / Case 03 of 05

Yalla Taco. Mexico came, Cairo said yalla.

Mexican street food with a Cairo accent. We built the identity, a cast of characters, the campaign, packaging and merchandise, and an ordering app with a game inside it.

Client: Yalla Taco
Sector: Mexican street food
Market: Cairo, Egypt
Year: 2026
Status: Brand concept
Scope: Identity, characters and illustration, campaign, packaging, merchandise, ordering app

Brand concept How to read this case study

Designed by us

Every logo, colour, type choice, layout and screen shown here is our original design work for this brand: identity, characters and illustration, campaign, packaging, merchandise, ordering app.

Visualised

Photography, people, interiors and out-of-home placements are concept visualisations, some made with AI, to show the identity in use. They are not live campaigns.

Yalla meets taco.

Yalla is more than a word: it's an attitude of movement and energy. The logo carries it in bold, slanted forms and playful curves taken from the shape of a chilli.

Chilli-shaped negative spaces hide inside the A and the O, so the food is in the letters. Cairo's street energy meets Mexican street-food culture, in a logo built to move as fast as the city does.

The default we defiedMexican concepts usually import the sombrero cliché wholesale. Yalla Taco speaks Cairo street, down to a cactus in a fez.

The mark

Energy, motion, play, street, chilli and Cairo, in one slanted wordmark and a Y icon that works on its own.

Yalla meets taco

Stacked Yalla Taco lock-up in Cactus on Nacho

The Y icon in Tortilla on Chilli — The Y icon

Branded on the tortilla

Colour and type

Five colours named after the menu. Figura sets the type with the same street confidence as the logo.

Tortilla#FFE5C0
Warm, soft, casual, comfort

Chilli#AE010D
Bold, energetic, spicy, street

Salsa#FF7002
Playful, vibrant, appetite, movement

Nacho#F9E110
Sunny, fun, optimistic, friendly

Cactus#027302
Fresh, natural, lively, authentic

Figura English typography specimen with the cactus character — Figura, for English

The crew

A chilli on a skateboard, a lime, a taco and a cactus in a fez and shades. Each one talks the way Cairo talks.

Chili: yalla ya amigo, spicy wla eh?

The four Yalla Taco characters: chilli, lime, cactus and taco — Chilli, lime, cactus and taco

Campaign

Franco-Arabic street talk across billboards, trucks, posters and the city itself.

Fresh out of the kitchen

Billboard: Grab. Bite. Yalla. — Grab. Bite. Yalla.

Illustrated Cairo street scene with a Yalla Taco cart and the characters — Cairo, illustrated

Yalla Taco food truck in Chilli red — Food truck

Trailer billboard: Hola ya brooo — Hola ya brooo

Wall sign and tee: Taco next left ya amigo — Taco next left ya amigo

Beanie and poster: Morning ya amigo — Morning ya amigo

Flyer on a windscreen: Mexico came, Cairo said yalla — Mexico came. Cairo said yalla.

Poster: Ya amigo, rawa2 — Ya amigo, rawa2

Close-up of someone biting a taco from a branded wrapper — The first bite

Server carrying plates with character stickers — In the restaurant

Packaging and merchandise

Every wrapper, bag and cup carries the crew, so the brand travels home with the food.

Wrapping paper printed with the Y icon and the characters — Wrapping paper

Paper bag with the lime and cactus characters — Takeaway bag

Chef with a plate and a cactus-green papel picado poster — Plates and posters

Branded takeaway bag being handed over — Handover

The ordering app

"What's the craving, amigo?" Pick, build and pay in the brand's voice, then play a running game while your taco cooks.

Menu, build your own, cart, checkout and the game

Results

This is a brand concept, so there are no live results to report yet. When the brand launches, we will publish its results here, each one labelled Confirmed, Claimed or Inferred so you know exactly how far to trust it.

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Built different. Not made to match.

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