El Pollo Loco
A Lucha Libre wrestling inspired name and character made for an internal team building exercise while working for a previous employer. Inspired by many common characteristics of a mean looking chicken, but many inside references specific to the company.
El Pollo Loco is designed to be a badass looking chicken (hence El Pollo Loco which translates to Crazy Chicken) whose strength is unparalleled. One of the company’s main selling point and a key characteristic of their product, is steam bent wood. Steam bend wood is much stronger than milled wood because the grain of the wood is bent rather than milled away leaving fracture points.
A key event of any factory tour is allowing the attendees to try and break a milled horse-shoe shaped piece of wood and one that is steam bent. If my memory is correct, the steam bent horseshoe has never been broken by a single person. Now knowing this information, you can see El Pollo Loco’s strength is nothing to mess with.
The other main feature of the character that adds some historical value, is the pupil of the larger eye. The pupil is actually a logo that was used by the company in the 70’s and then changed at the start of the new decade. A small subtle homage to the previous employees and ownership.
And of course the overall color, green, a very non subtle point at the event as a whole; the Wayland Green Games. An event that, in short, was about reducing, reusing, and recycling, something we can all get behind.
