Taqueria Chicago Food Truck

Taqueria Chicago is a Mexican food restaurant based in South Bend, Indiana. It first opened up in 1969 and its recipes and store has been passed down from generation to generation. When my mom first came to the United States Taqueria Chicago was her first job, so I grew up eating there and becoming very close with the staff. When visiting Taqueria Chicago growing up, I realized how much family and love for authentic Mexican culture was inside of the restaurant.

Therefore, the concept I wanted to capture in the truck was the love for their recipes and the generational love that lives inside of Taqueria Chicago. However, I did not want to just place the ingredients on the truck alone, which is why I incorporated the Talavera patterns. Talavera pottery is deep rooted in Mexican culture and typically seen with bright colors and organic patterns. The pottery is typically used as food containers, peppper and salt shakers, or even just for decoration. Of course, inside of Taqueria Chicago they ututlized this pottery for salsa bowls, napkin holders, and even wall tiles. Therefore the truck being covered in these talavera patterned ingredients symbolized the truck itself being a congtainer for the food inside of it.

To take it a step further I included these patterns on the actual containers for the to go packaging of the food truck. However, every food item has its corresponding ingredient on the packaging- for example a chips and salsa bag would have the tortilla chip ingredient on its bag. The ingredients are also varying in colors to symbolize how the ingredients have been passed down and changed with every generation but ultimately has remined the same recipe using the same ingredients.

Overall, this food truck is meant to represent the generation culture that is within this family restaurant, and by using bold and bright colors it creates an eye-catching design for customers to notice on the street.