Visual identity & positioning for Smart Brioche: gourmet data for hospitality pros
Founder & revenue management expert Thibaut Catala came back to London in 2018 after a stint in one of the most exciting food scene in Asia, Singapore. He was looking at growing his consulting business, as well as his answer to one of the main issues in hospitality: a platform to help some of the busiest professionals on Earth to take better decisions. A platform that would be simple, but powerful. A platform that would empower great chefs, baristas and operators to do what they do best, but better.
1. What's in a name: first concepts
A name should say a lot, without saying too much. You need to leave some white space, for intrigue. Yet, it should hold its own, either at first glance, or when the story unfolds.
For this project, it all started as all good stories do: with a coffee. At Electric in Ealing (thanks guys). Thibault told me his story: he came from France and grew to head up performance and yield management for 5-star hotels in Portugal and across Asia.
And as we talked, his passion for bringing his expertise to restaurants and bars was clear: a clear gourmet (and gourmand), he loved the idea of making numbers easier for culinary artisans.
A few names were banded around, and somehow, from nowhere, Smart Brioche appeared.
It felt strange. Yet, even after a few other options, we kept coming back to it.
It checked out: it told the part about numbers, and the ease. Smart implies both. It also talked about food, and the French, European and Asian parts of the founder's career. Brioche is also understood widely.
After a quick due diligence process, the domain was secured: smartbrioche.com
It was the beginning.
2. What's in a logo: drawing, everywhere, on everything
It all starts with the biggest moodboard (but then again, what doesn't). Brioche in all shapes and forms. Burnt, raw and everything in between. Anthopomorphists or simply beautifully cooked. Also, some messed up ones for good measure.
Then numbers, graphs and ancient languages went in. Everything to represent performance and finances, with multiplyers and divisers, and much more.
Before being rationalised into the first concepts. And refined. And refined again.
3. What about the palette, and the photography?
The platform is all about transparency, and being a helping hand to busy professionals. This needed to be conveyed in our visual identity, especially through a sensible palette and photography. Although the main platform is online, we knew there would a need for print collaterals, so it was important to consider.
Also, when you need graphs, having enough secondary colours is key.
Besides, for photography, balancing food shots and professionals at work felt essential to be close to what's important to them, and thus to the brand.
4. What's in collaterals?
As part of the positioning work (which we aren't showing here), ther was a need to express the brand essence in a platable creative route, whcih would connect with our audience. How do you catch the eye of the 12-hour shift maître d', or the multi-restaurant chef?
We opted for a simple, USP-driven message inspired by the market truth - much of restaurant data sits underused or unactionable - and the human truth - data is hard to make sense of. Fortunately, that's what Smart Brioche is for: find the powers hiding in your numbers.
