Farrow Design gets out the cutlery for Royal Academy of Arts restaurants logo

Farrow Design has created the visual identity for the Royal Academy of Arts’ three catering venues, including a new restaurant, which has interiors designed by Tom Dixon and the team at Design Research Studio (see News Analysis, page 9 and www.designweek.co.uk, 5 January).

The consultancy was appointed alongside caterer Peyton & Byrne, which is operating the restaurant and has been working on the project since October. Farrow senior designer Gary Stillwell says, ’Obviously, presenting to a committee at the RA is fairly daunting. They’re incredibly visually literate and have very strong opinions, but it all went fairly smoothly.’

The design will be applied across all materials including menus, uniforms, stationery and signage. It will also be used on the product labels for the restaurant’s wine bottles, for which Royal Academicians including Gary Hume, Tracy Emin and Michael Craig-Martin will create the front labels.

Posters from the RA’s archives heavily influence the design. Stillwell says, ’We fell in love with this fantastic set of posters, which ran from about 1945 to the end of the 1960s, and based the identity around that layout.’

He adds, ’It’s a fairly traditional type layout, but to give it idiosyncrasy we used fluorescent colours and gloss finishes to bring it up to date.’
The identity will roll out when the new restaurant opens on 18 January.