We were able to work with the Wendy’s Product Innovation team to create a meal worthy of this collab. While designing the packaging, we kept to a strict color palette of black, white, purple and blood red. We added simplified gothic elements to match with the existing show’s lockup while also incorporating elements of Wednesday herself (stripes, braids and sharp collars). Along with referencing the iconography from the first season, I looked at headstone carvings and etches from old cemeteries located along the East coast to really highlight Wednesday’s antique inspired interests.
Wednesday x Wendy’s
Meal of Misfortune
In 2025, Wendy’s partnered with Netflix for the release of Wednesday Season 2. I’m a big fan of the series, so I was excited to work on this collab. Together with Creative Directors Jon Nicolson and Nathan Orensten, Copywriter Daniel Sawtell, and creatives at VML, we brought Wendy’s into Wednesday’s world. We imagined what she would do if she was the Creative Director of the brand. Overall I helped create the meal packaging, in-restaurant merchandising, out-of-home collateral, restaurant crew engagement swag, local restaurant tactics and add-ons, as well as additional branding and logos for the Wendy’s Restaurant Drive-thru take over in LA.
In-Restaurant Merchandising
After I spent many rounds of finalizing the layouts for each tactic, digital illustrator Tom Karcher took them to their final form. He added 3D leading effects, cracks, age marks, glass pattern differences and other beautiful details.
For the POP tactics, we were inspired by the huge stained glass window that dominated Enid and Wednesday’s room in the dormitory. Instead of using traditional food photography, we wanted to do a non-traditional method Wednesday would be intrigued by- a full gothic stained glass set of merch tactics. Shooting images of real stained glass sheets illuminated from behind, and referencing antique stained-glass examples, I created unique layouts for every tactic.
Crew Engagement
We created swag boxes for the crew members of each participating Wendy’s restaurant, to get them excited for the new collab. Each box contained a letter from Wednesday (in her voice, at least), a set of blind bagged pins, tees, and hats. I designed these elements to match to the branding we used for the in-restaurant merchandising, complete with stained glass-like enamel pins.
Out of home
Our OOH strategy was to prioritize the Raven’s Blood Frosty, really emphasizing the red cherry sauce drip, and our amazing copy lines from Daniel Sawtell.
Restaurant Drive-Thru Experience
While our team didn’t create the drive-thru experience, I did illustrate the Wednesday cameo face, ‘Wednesday’s’ typography, and question mark with skull, as well as other vector elements created for use on packaging.
