Taco Bell’s 2016 identity evolution was more than a new logo. Christopher Ayres, the executive creative director on the work, describes a five-year effort that paired a more adaptable visual system with the creation of an in-house agency. Its central challenge was to let the brand show up in new places without losing the unexpected, outsider character that made it recognizable.
Why Taco Bell changed its identity
By Ayres’s account, Taco Bell’s branding had gone more than 20 years without an update. The 1990s-era logo no longer felt suited to the ways the company wanted to express itself. In a Format interview about the redesign, he put it simply: “Our logo didn’t represent us anymore.” Format interview
The problem was not just how the mark looked. A large restaurant brand needs an identity that can work across packaging, restaurant concepts, signage, apps and merchandise—not only on a logo in isolation. Ayres’s account frames the 2016 evolution as a response to that wider range of uses.
From logo refresh to flexible brand system
Keep the cue; vary the expression
The updated identity retained Taco Bell’s recognizable bell framework while giving the team room to vary colors, patterns and textures. Taco Bell Design and Lippincott were the design and strategy partners, according to Ayres’s portfolio retrospective. The system could therefore remain identifiable while changing its expression from one application to another. Christopher Ayres’s Taco Bell portfolio
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Make the identity work in real settings
Ayres’s portfolio shows the identity applied to packaging and hospitality experiences; the Format interview discusses the need for a design that works across many uses. Together, these examples illustrate the difference between updating a logo and building a system: the former changes a central symbol or type treatment, while the latter gives a brand a repeatable visual logic for different environments and formats.
The portfolio documents the creative approach and applications, not their commercial effect. The reviewed accounts do not establish that the redesign caused a change in sales, loyalty or brand value.
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Why an outsider voice mattered
Ayres describes Taco Bell’s unexpectedness and outsider quality as permission to experiment, provided the work still felt authentic to the brand. His portfolio says the team aimed to defy expectations without taking itself too seriously. That is a creative rationale, not a measured result: the sources explain the intended character of the work, but do not quantify whether audiences responded differently.
There is a useful tension behind that approach. Taco Bell is a large quick-service chain, yet it has often presented itself with the tone of a challenger. In 2018, then-global chief brand officer Marisa Thalberg told Fortune, “We think of ourselves as an underdog and a challenger.” She also described balancing limited-time innovation with operating requirements such as safety, speed, convenience and value. Her comments provide context for the brand’s broader posture at that time; they are not Ayres’s words or a description of current leadership. Fortune interview with Marisa Thalberg
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The agency behind the creative work
For Ayres, building Taco Bell’s in-house agency from the ground up was the proudest accomplishment of his time at the brand. In his portfolio retrospective, he writes: “My time at the Bell was filled with so many amazing memories, including my proudest accomplishment: building their in-house agency from the ground up.” Christopher Ayres’s Taco Bell portfolio
That detail matters because an identity system needs people and processes to use it. An internal creative team can help carry a shared point of view across projects and touchpoints. The available account supports describing agency-building as a major part of Ayres’s role, but it does not give a staffing count, budget or organizational chart.
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How fans became part of the brand’s expression
Later Taco Bell brand leaders described a related idea: the brand can appear in culture through its fans, rather than only through centrally planned campaigns. Senior Director of Brand Creative Strategy Ashley Prollamante said, “Our brand is so much better in the hands of our fans.” In the same interview, she described showing up in places where fans already take the brand. eatbigfish interview with Ashley Prollamante
Nicole Weltman, also speaking in the eatbigfish interview, described a “newsroom” approach: quick weekly ideation alongside longer-term planning and a bank of ideas. That offers a picture of a continuing brand philosophy, not a description of Ayres’s specific process during the 2016 identity work. Central creative direction and fan participation are not opposites: a consistent identity can provide recognizable cues while leaving room for people to use and reinterpret them.
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Taco Bell’s official materials also document branded retail collections and a Taco Shop, showing how the brand extends beyond restaurants into merchandise. That is evidence of a retail extension, not proof that merchandise created the brand’s following. Taco Bell’s 60th-anniversary story
Quick Recap
What this case study shows—and what it cannot prove
- A refresh can address a system problem. Ayres’s account focuses on making the identity work across more applications, not simply replacing an aging logo.
- Distinctiveness needs room to travel. Retaining the bell framework while varying color, pattern and texture offered a way to adapt without abandoning a recognizable cue.
- Creative infrastructure is part of brand-building. Ayres names the in-house agency as his proudest accomplishment, though he does not provide operational details.
- Participation is a later, separately attributed perspective. Prollamante and Weltman describe fans’ role and a newsroom process in later interviews; those comments should not be folded into Ayres’s account.
- Creative intent is not a performance metric. The sources describe rationale and examples, but do not establish causal effects on sales, loyalty or brand value.
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