SHOSHA
A cafe for Chandigarh's college crowd — built from zero with a brand bold enough to stand out in every lane of Sector 15 and every scroll of Instagram.
A CAFE THAT
COLLEGE KIDS WOULD
CLAIM AS THEIR OWN
Sector 15 Chandigarh is surrounded by colleges — PEC, GGDSD, and dozens more. The founders of Shosha wanted to build a cafe that would feel like it belonged to its customers, not just a business that sold them food.
The brief was total: build a brand from the very first stroke. Name, visual identity, packaging system, menu design, indoor branding, launch campaign and social media — everything that a cafe needs to walk out of the door on day one and immediately feel like it's been there forever. The brand had to be affordable enough that a ₹200 budget felt generous, and cool enough that someone would share it on Instagram before they'd even taken a bite.
The product — shakes, waffles, and quick bites at college-friendly prices — was clear. The brand needed to give it personality, energy, and a reason to become a daily habit for the thousands of students within walking distance.
Build a brand that students would line up for, photograph, and send to each other — before they'd even tasted the food. Make the packaging do the marketing. Make the wall do the marketing. Make everything a content opportunity.
A BADGE WORTH
WEARING ON YOUR
COFFEE CUP
The Shosha logo is a badge — the kind that goes on a biker jacket and a paper bag with equal conviction. Built around a circular emblem with a rope border, wheat motif, three stars, and the brand's ribbon banner reading "SHAKES & WAFFLES", the logo communicates craft, authenticity, and a little attitude.
The wordmark uses both Devanagari and English — "इहोरा / SHOSHA" — simultaneously rooting the brand in its North Indian context and giving it the visual muscle to work on international food delivery platforms. The Devanagari script is rendered with the same boldness as the Latin letterforms: neither is secondary.
The identity system was deliberately built for packaging first — because for a delivery-heavy college-area cafe, the box and bag are the primary brand experience. Every element was sized and specified to work at the diameter of a coffee cup sleeve and the face of a burger box.
The logo had to look hand-stamped — like it was pressed onto kraft paper by someone who cared. Vintage credibility, youth energy. Not a startup. Not a chain. Something real.
PACKAGING THAT
GOES HOME ON
INSTAGRAM FIRST
Five packaging pieces. Every one designed to be photographed. Every one carrying the full brand story in print.
The Shosha packaging system covers five pieces — each one an extension of the badge identity printed on kraft and black. The main carry bag uses the black-and-kraft duotone: a deep charcoal bottom half (with food icons and the word "Authentic" in italic script) and a kraft upper half dense with orange polka dots and the centred badge logo. It's impossible to mistake for any other brand.
The burger box is printed black-on-kraft with the Shosha badge embossed across the lid — making it the kind of packaging someone photographs before opening. The coffee cup sleeve continues the black-badge language, small enough to be sophisticated but bold enough to carry at the counter.
Every piece in the packaging range was designed with one question in mind: would a 20-year-old take a photo of this before eating? The answer, consistently, was yes. Within weeks of launch, Shosha packaging was appearing in student Instagram stories across Chandigarh — unprompted, unpaid, and unstoppable.
In a college neighbourhood, the delivery bag is a walking billboard. Shosha's packaging was worth more than any paid ad because it was carried, photographed, and shared by the very people we wanted to reach.
A MENU DESIGNED
FOR A ₹200 WALLET
AND A BIG APPETITE
Menu design for Shosha was a strategic exercise as much as a creative one. The pricing architecture was built specifically around the spending patterns of college students — generous portions at prices where a group of three could eat well for under ₹600.
The menu itself follows the brand's visual language: black base, orange accent, wheat motifs, and the badge system. Categories are clear, items are described with appetite-first language, and combos are highlighted to drive higher average order values without increasing per-item price perception.
A digital menu board version was produced for in-store display — animated, using the same design system — so the on-screen experience was identical to the printed card.
The menu's job is to make everything look like a great deal. Combos, specials, and a clear hierarchy of price and portion — designed so that a student never feels like they can't afford to treat themselves.
EVERY WALL A
CONTENT OPPORTUNITY
A cafe where every corner was designed to be a backdrop — for a selfie, a Reel, a casual photo with friends. The space is the content studio.
The Shosha badge in oversized form above the entrance — backlit, visible from the road, unmistakeable in the Sector 15 lane. First impressions set the tone: vintage, bold, approachable. The kind of sign you stop to read even when you weren't planning to eat.
Curated typography murals — brand phrases, food names in hand-lettered style — across the cafe's interior walls. Designed to be backgrounds for photographs. Every mural chose words students would want in their content: "Authentic", "Made Fresh", "Shakes & Waffles — No Compromise".
The service counter was wrapped in the brand's black-and-kraft language — consistent with the packaging, so the visual identity was seamless from the bag in your hand to the wall behind the counter. Menu boards, price displays, and upsell panels all within the brand system.
Table tents, napkin holders, and condiment label designs — all small-format applications of the badge identity. Making every surface of the eating experience feel intentionally designed rather than assembled from mismatched pieces.
THE LAUNCH THAT
MADE SECTOR 15
PAY ATTENTION
A pre-launch social build-up, a launch day event, and a week-one content strategy that turned a new cafe into the most-talked-about opening in the neighbourhood.
Pre-Launch Build-Up (2 weeks before): Teaser content on Instagram — close-up packaging shots, food imagery, behind-the-scenes construction. No product reveals. Just enough to make the neighbourhood wonder what was coming. "Coming soon to Sector 15" with the badge as the only identity.
Launch Day Event: First 50 customers received a free shake. Every table had a card inviting customers to tag Shosha for a chance to win a weekly free meal. The packaging, the murals, and the food created an environment where photographing was the natural response — not a prompted one.
Ongoing Content Strategy: Three content pillars for Instagram and Facebook — Indulgence (food-first, appetite-triggering), Community (student features, UGC reposting), and Personality (the attitude and humour of the brand voice). Posts scheduled for 11:30 AM (pre-lunch) and 6:30 PM (post-college).
Don't ask students to share your brand. Give them something worth sharing, then get out of the way. Shosha's packaging and space were the campaign. The strategy was just making sure they were ready.
THE NUMBERS BEHIND
THE BUZZ
It was built to be the cafe —
the one you walk fifteen minutes to
and don't think twice about.
FROM AN EMPTY
SHOPFRONT TO THE SPOT
Visual System
- Badge logo with Devanagari + Latin wordmark
- Full colour system — black, orange, kraft, cream
- Typography and pattern language codified
- Brand guidelines for future application
- All formats — print, digital, signage
Space & Collateral
- 5-piece packaging system — bag, boxes, sleeve
- Menu design — print + digital board versions
- Indoor branding — murals, signage, counter
- Table identity — tents, cards, labels
- Launch day collateral — event materials
Marketing Impact
- Instagram grown to 280% in 90 days
- 4× footfall growth by week 12
- #1 tagged cafe in Sector 15 in 60 days
- Zomato & Swiggy listings optimised at launch
- 62% repeat customer rate established
Every student in Sector 15 knows Shosha now. The brand Antraajaal built gave us an identity so strong that people came in just to see the cafe before they even looked at the menu. That packaging travels further than any ad we could have run.
— Founder, Shosha Shakes & Waffles | Sector 15, Chandigarh
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