King Design crowns Mayfair eaterie with architecture-inspired look

Norfolk-based King Design has created the identity for the Wolseley Café-Restaurant in London, due to open next week.

The work, worth £20 000 in fees to the consultancy, involved creation of a ‘corporate image’ to be applied to a range of 60 items for the restaurant, including stationery, exterior and interior signage, patisserie boxes, menus, matchboxes and website, www.thewolseley.com, says King Design designer Pete King.

The café is located on the site of the former China House restaurant, originally a Wolseley Car Showroom built in 1919, and the group was briefed to ‘bridge the gap of understanding the nature of the building and the needs of a contemporary restaurant in a period environment,’ says Wolseley joint proprietor Jeremy King.

According to Pete King, the work features Art Deco and Art Nouveau-style typefaces appropriate to the period in which the building was constructed.

The motif is taken from a section of wrought iron above the building’s doors and windows. The colour-scheme reflects the stone-work in the restaurant, the black in its marble floor and its Chinoiserie panelling, he adds.

The group was appointed to the work on the strength of a previous relationship with Jeremy King and fellow Wolseley Café-Restaurant proprietor Christopher Corbin.

Interiors are by David Collins (DW 7 August).