Ash Gribben is a Ballymaloe Alumnus, Ottolenghi head-chef with a deep love and understanding of Middle Eastern food. After working in Little Fox Ennistymon and baking at Hugo's in Lahinch, Ash launched her own restaurant alongside the team at Pot Duggans.
With a love of big, bold fresh flavours and locally sourced ingredients, Ash came to me to develop a brand that captured her unique style and help her stand out from the crowd during the busy summer season.
I worked with Ash to discuss the goals, target audience and materials needed for her to deem her brand successful. We decided to create a fresh, playful brand that would reflect her love of Middle Eastern cuisine and stand out from other restaurants and cafes in the area. We developed a project timeline and focussed on the main deliverables of logo, extended brand (incl. social media templates), print menu design and a website.
Initial Ideas
Taking inspiration from the food she loves to create, I put a mood board together for Ash focussing on the colours and textures often found in Middle Eastern food. We also decided early on that food illustration should feature in the brand to make its assets feel like a well loved, interactive cookbook or recipe journal.
Illustration Mascot Evolution
We then created a logo and brandmark by working with colours such as turmeric yellow and pomegranate pink and fun, bold fonts that are both striking and friendly. We expanded this look across print and digital materials to begin to build a flexible brand that could be applied in multiple places. These designs became templates which Ash and her team could update quickly without having to outsource to me. This allowed them to respond quickly on social media and also made it easy to update the menu template with the weekly changes that working with fresh, seasonal produce requires.
To complete the project, we needed a website. We decided a one-page Squarespace website would act as an online storefront for the restaurant, giving us space to tell curious customers the story behind Ash’s food, as well as more essential logistics such as opening times, menu and contact info. This was particularly useful during times of restrictions as opening hours were subject to change at short notice.
