Michelin-starred chef’s menu is given an iconic aesthetic
With two Michelin stars to his name, when Portuguese chef, Henrique Sà Pessoa opened his first restaurant outside Lisbon he chose Amsterdam’s global destination Art’otel. In such a space, a bold new brand was required, and Nelson Associates created a striking design and branding programme across every customer touchpoint, from brand identity to uniforms, menus to social media, capturing the spirit of Portugal with an uncommon contemporary aesthetic.
The destination, Amsterdam’s Art’otel, reinterprets luxury for a new type of hospitality, fusing vibrant art with modern luxury, showcasing works from all over the world on its walls and in its destination exhibition space. One of the Top 100 best chefs in the world, Sà Pessoa’s artistry is routed in his Portuguese heritage, and so Nelson Associates turned to his homeland for visual inspiration.
Researching the area in Portugal that inspired Sà Pessoa’s food, we were taken by the ‘palheiros’, unique colourful striped houses of the fishing villages of Costa Nova. Taking the stripes as a starting point, we created a bold visual language that is both iconic and playful. Typography was inspired by fonts we found in an historic Portuguese foundry, which we then painstakingly redrew and re-crafted to create a marque that is iconic, timeless and contemporary.