GBH brands ‘fantasy’ Philippe Starck-designed restaurant Miss Kō

The Asian fusion restaurant opened this week in Paris’s affluent George V area, and is described by GBH as ‘the future; a place where cultures collide, fantasy rules and nothing is what it seems. It’s like Blade Runner – only happy.’

GBH began work on the project about ten months ago, having been contacted by parent company Le Paradis du Fruit.

It created an identity based on the fictional Miss Kō character, ‘a young, sexy but eternally mysterious symbol of Asia, and the embodiment of its traditions and its strangeness’, says GBH.

The menu and other collateral features imagery of Miss Kō’s ‘Yazuka’ full-body tattoo, created by tattoo artist Horikitsune (Alex Kofuu Reinke), and photographed by Uli Webber.

Peter Hale, creative director at GBH, says, ‘We were investigating the weirdest and strangest aspects of eastern culture to us Westerners, and the full body-suit tattoo seemed quite extreme. It’s that tradition of having something a bit edgy alongside all the high-society stuff.’

GBH created a logo based on nine grains of rice, each representing one of the Asian countries that have inspired the Miss Kō menu.

All collateral for Miss Kō is inspired by the character’s imagined ‘world’, with her private sketchbook informing the cocktail menu and the dessert menu taking the form of her childhood photograph album.

The food and drink menu covers show Miss Kō’s tattoos, using isolated imagery and body parts in repeated patterns, while the interiors feature animated versions of the logo projected onto the floor, aiming to create the effect of dancing grains of rice.

Another animation on the restaurant wall shows 100 Asian faces, photographed last summer, morph into one another on a constant loop.

Exterior signage aims to reference bright Asian street signs, using an animation of the Miss Kō logo with each part of the signage displaying the name in a different Asian language ‘creating a strange hieroglyphic effect’, says GBH.