Seymourpowell creates ‘clockwork knife’ branding concept for Heston Blumenthal’s latest venture

According to Seymourpowell co-founder and director Richard Seymour, the idea for the branding ‘came out of thin air’, using designs based around the Clockwork Knife concept, with ‘Victorian-style’ illustrations of a knife with a clockwork turning device, filled with cogs.

A physical Clockwork Knife kinetic sculpture was built according to the consultancy’s designs by mechanical sculptor Rob Higgs, and sits above the main restaurant sign.

Seymour says, ‘The Clockwork Knife came out of thin air. I wanted something that clearly said “chef” not “fast food” and yet evoked Heston’s boyish delight in the analogue, mechanical worlds of William Heath-Robinson and Professor Branestawm.’

Seymourpowell’s designs are used across al touchpoints including signage, restaurant, stationery and retail items. The consultancy also named the restaurant.

Seymour says, ‘As much of the menu concept emanates from Heston’s In Search of Perfection TV series, it seemed logical that the Café’s name should reflect that.

‘The shift of emphasis from the creator to the diner themselves, by moving the inverted comma to the end of the word, recognises a traveller who¹s fed-up with  junk, but craves really exceptional food quickly. We called it a café because that¹s what it is: fast, friendly and informal’.

The restaurant is sited at Heathrow airport’s terminal two, and features interiors designed by Afroditi Krassa, which she says were inspired by the work of Saul Bass.