Branding Agency in New York for Chain Menus That Carry the City’s Warning Icons

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

A restaurant chain with 15 or more locations in the country may not draw its own warning icons for its New York City menus. The Health Department supplies the sodium icon and the added sugars icon, and each must be as wide as it is tall and as tall as the largest letter in the item’s name. A branding agency in New York that redesigns a chain’s menu boards, ordering app and item tags writes that rule into the type scale before the first board is drawn. Progression’s team is based in New York, shapes most of a menu system over shared screens, and will stand in front of a store’s board with you when you ask.

An icon recolored to match the brand’s orange

A hypothetical chain’s new menu board shows the designer’s idea: the warning mark recolored in the brand’s accent color and set at half the height of the item names. The rule fixes three points that the board breaks: the City’s own file, as wide as tall, as tall as the largest letter of the item name.

The icon is the one mark on the board the brand does not draw. Everything around it is the brand’s to decide, and the type scale has to leave room for it.

A branding agency in New York and the City’s two menu icons

The rules cover permitted chain food service establishments: those with 15 or more locations doing business in the U.S. under the same name and offering the same, or almost the same, menu items. The sodium warning rule puts an icon beside items at 2,300 mg of sodium or more and has been in effect since December 1, 2015. Violations began June 6, 2016, and a violation can lead to a $200 fine.

The added sugars warning rule puts an icon beside prepackaged food items, and items identical to them, with 50 g or more of added sugars. The Department’s page on added sugars gives October 4, 2025 as the date it was implemented. It does not apply to mobile food vending units, though the sodium rule names mobile and temporary food vendors. A violation of the added sugars rule can bring a summons subject to a $200 fine.

Plain advice: the brand guidelines treat both icons as fixed City artwork. Questions go to the Department’s mailboxes, salt@health.nyc.gov for sodium and sugar@health.nyc.gov for added sugars, or to 311.

The two rules side by side

Both rules share a coverage test and a size rule. They differ in what triggers an icon, where the statement goes and who is covered.

The menu system, element by element

Each row below is one part of a chain’s menu identity, set against what each rule says, what the brand decides and what stays fixed. The table is the working document for a menu refresh.

Icon height set by the item name

The icon is equal in height to the largest letter of the item’s name as displayed, so a change to the name’s size changes the icon. A type scale that sets name sizes first and icon sizes second keeps the two together.

• Set the icon height from the largest letter of each name.
• Keep the icon as wide as it is tall.
• Recheck the height whenever a name changes size.
• Use the same rule on boards, tags and screens.

Combination meals and every possible build

A combination meal gets the sodium icon if the whole meal, or any option within it, reaches 2,300 mg, and drink sodium counts toward the meal. Under the added sugars rule, covered items in a meal that total 50 g or more earn the icon.

• Test every option in a choose a side build.
• Test every size of a meal.
• Decide whether the icon sits by a section heading, the meal names or the variation.
• Keep a record of each test with the nutrition figures from the chain.

Fountain drinks that match a bottle

A fountain drink and a bottled drink sold under the same brand name and presented as substantially the same are identical under the added sugars rule. The next section covers how the guide works out the amount.

• List each poured drink beside its bottled item.
• Note the calories for each.
• Send unclear cases to sugar@health.nyc.gov.
• Place the statement at the soda fountain.

Pricing a menu identity that holds the City’s icons

Pricing depends on scope and is set in the written proposal. Published prices are subject to change. A New York branding agency prices the menu system by how many boards, screens and tags it has to cover.

Menu board printing, digital board hardware and app development are quoted by the printer or developer. For the broader range of identity work, see our branding agency page, and for design that carries food and drink into packaging see packaging design agency.

When a fountain drink counts as the bottled one

Under the added sugars rule, a food item offered in prepackaged and non-prepackaged form under the same brand name, and promoted, advertised or presented as substantially the same in either form, is identical. Both forms are treated alike.

For the amount, the guide uses calories rather than serving size. It divides the packaged item’s added sugars by its calories, and multiplies the result by the calories of the item served. The Department says to email sugar@health.nyc.gov for help when the amount cannot be worked out.

Plain advice: the brand team keeps a list of every bottled and poured pairing with its calories, and sends unclear cases to the Department before artwork is final.

Does a blended drink need the icon?

Not necessarily. The guide says some items, such as blended coffee drinks, smoothies, milkshakes, lemonades, bubble tea, hot chocolate and desserts, may not require the icon even if they contain 50 g or more of added sugars. The rule turns on prepackaged and identical items.

The ordering app follows the board

Under the sodium rule, the icons and the statement belong on the chain’s website or app when customers can place orders there, and are not needed where the site takes no orders. Third party ordering sites are not required to carry the sodium icon, because the companies that run them are not permitted food service establishments. Under the added sugars rule, online menus used for self-ordering count as menus.

Plain advice: the digital design system sets the icon at the item name’s height on every screen size, and the online menu shows the statement where icons appear. A chain’s app work sits with restaurant app development.

• Set icon height from the name’s largest letter on every breakpoint.
• Show the statement on the screens where icons appear.
• Check the order flow at phone width.
• Send a mock-up to the Department when a screen is unclear.

Limited time items and the launch calendar

Both rules cover promotional and temporary items. If a recipe or portion change brings an item to the line, the icon is needed as soon as the item is offered. A reformulated item that drops below the line can be reported to the Department, which will instruct inspectors not to cite menus for it once satisfied.

Plain advice: the launch brief carries the nutrition check before the art is drawn, and every launch layout leaves room for the icon. A branding agency in NY that skips that step redraws the board after printing. Campaign work for the launch sits with QSR marketing.

• Run the nutrition check at the brief.
• Leave room for the icon in every layout.
• Report a reformulated item to the Department.
• Keep the launch calendar and the print calendar together.

The warning statements as a type block

The two statements are quoted exactly as the Department words them. For sodium: “Warning: [icon] indicates that the sodium (salt) content of this item is higher than the total daily recommended limit (2,300 mg). High sodium intake can increase blood pressure and risk of heart disease and stroke.” It is posted in a clearly visible place where customers order and in a clearly visible part of the menu.

For added sugars: “Warning: [icon] indicates that the added sugars content of this item is equal to or higher than the total daily recommended limit of added sugars for a 2,000 calorie diet (50 g). Eating or drinking high amounts of added sugars over time can increase risk of type 2 diabetes, weight gain, and tooth decay.” It is posted in a clearly visible place at the point of purchase, on the menu or menu board, and at self-service food locations. It is not needed when no covered item reaches 50 g.

Plain advice: the statements are set once as a locked block in the brand’s guidelines with the City’s icon inline, and the wording is never edited or shortened.

A city page inside the franchise guidelines

The rules apply in New York City. The national brand book carries one New York City section with the two icon files, the height rule, both statements, the combination meal options, the online ordering rule and the two review mailboxes, so a franchisee opening in the five boroughs does not improvise.

A New York City branding agency writes that section once for every franchisee who opens here. For the franchise side of the program, see franchise marketing agency.

What belongs in the New York City section?

The icon files and where to get them, the height rule, both statements, the test for combination meals, the ordering app rule, and the review mailboxes.

Who answers which question, and where the brand team sends it

A chain’s brand team works best when each rule question has a named place to go.

Can a brand team ask the Department to look at a mock-up?

Yes. The Department invites menu and menu board mock-ups at its review mailboxes and gives feedback as quickly as it can.

Which mailbox takes which rule?

Sodium questions go to salt@health.nyc.gov and added sugars questions go to sugar@health.nyc.gov. The Department also answers on 311.

Who checks the nutrition figures?

The chain. Nutrition figures come from the chain, and the brand team tests the layouts against them.

What should a design brief ask for first?

The item list with sodium and added sugars figures for every size and version, then the list of bottled and poured pairings.

• The full item list.
• Figures for every size and version.
• The list of bottled and poured pairings.
• The locations that fall under the rules.
• The date of the next launch.

Before the board goes to the printer

The card lists what to finish before a board, tag or screen goes out. For a restaurant’s wider identity, see restaurant branding agency and food branding agency.

• Send the mock-up to the right mailbox.
• Keep the Department’s reply with the board file.
• Print only after the type scale is final.

The Department invites menu and menu board mock-ups at its review mailboxes and gives feedback as quickly as it can. A large New York team can also be found through marketing agencies in NYC when a chain wants campaign support alongside the menu.

Frequently asked questions