Eleo's Brasserie & Bar

Well this post is to show you the development on another logo/identity I am working on, for a french restaurant in the heart of Swansea. Eleo's Brasserie has been established for quite sometime, and offer a relaxed yet upscale dinning experience. The original logo was a simple typeface of the hand written type, that simply said Eleo's Brasserie. As they have just changed owners and wish to relaunch, they have asked me to create a new logo/identity that was reflective of the restaurants history, therefore I felt it was appropriate to add the word bar as they also have a wine bar which was not be mentioned in their previous identity.

I did not want the logo to fall into the modern day look of many other restaurants since the restaurant itself has a rustic old charm kind of feel, therefore to create an updated modern feel I kept to simple clean cuts for any imagery. And using easy to read typefaces, such as Futura for a clean modern feel, but I also tried ITC Caslon no224 for a sleek feel that reflects the classic style of dinning Eleo's Brasserie offers. I also tried Caslon Openface as a real nod to the old style of font-faces that are so famously seen and used in actual parisian shop-fronts. If your wondering why one of the logo treatments has the cutlery arranged like a crown, this is a nod to the actual location of the restaurant, as it is situated on a street known as the Kingsway. I have found that many famous restaurants, as a way of keeping their identity consistent but developed, they will keep all layout of text the same but the imagery/identity is tweaked or changed slightly to reflect the branches location, so I am hoping if Eleo's Brasserie does open another restaurant that the imagery of the logo/identity of that opening also reflects its location, in order to differentiate but also co-ordernate their brand.

This is still work in progress, I still can not decide on the logo with or without the black fill in the imagery, Both work just as well. I think I will be able to decide once I start applying colours that connotate the French such as red on white, gold, or blue and white in creating the rest and complete identity. I hope you like what you see so far, I will keep you posted once some good progress has been made.

Update: 19/02/2010

Hi this is another update you show you some more development of the Eleo's Brasserie & Bar logo. All other designs such as menus, letterheads, compliment slips and business cards have also been designed. After looking at the completed designs and the colour palettes used, I finally arrived at this colour way and treatment for the final logo.

The gold was introduced in the menu designs for a decorative purpose, and I felt the same gold colour could be applied to the logo itself, to emphasize the crown aspect of the design which is a nod to the restaurant's location. The gold works very well and makes the crown appear to have jewels on the top, while in keeping with the modern sleek feel, which was the aim of the new identity.

The final typeface choice was ITC Caslon no224 since it had the best of both looks, It had abit of the old but with a mix of the new too due to the typeface having slimmer cuts.

The Constructivist.