We’ve worked with James Beard Award-winning chef Gerard Craft on the launch of four of his restaurants in St. Louis and Nashville. His latest creation – a collaboration with the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis – needed an identity that was as iconic as its high-profile St. Louis location.
The concept for Gerard’s latest restaurant was inspired by his experiences with the grilling-centric culture of South America. It borrows flavors and cooking styles from across the continent – with a particular focus on Brazil – but is also something entirely unique.
In collaboration with our client, we worked through lists of names about fire and ash. Gerard shared with us his initial ideas of new life born from ashes. This solidified a name that had been at the top of our list for a while: Cinder House.
As the concepts came together, we looked to brand language to spark our next steps. There are so many distinct aspects of the Cinder House experience: the food, the iconic location by the Gateway Arch, the classic Four Seasons service.
This is Cinder House.
With any restaurant branding project, there’s always a point at which we move from high-concept work to highly functional pieces: signage, teasers, websites, billboards and ads. Here we were able to take ideas like heat and fire – and translate them into hand-drawn elements that would become the foundation of the brand exeprience.
One twist: the transition from concept to function happened faster than expected with Cinder House. As construction wrapped up early, we were able to help our client open deliciously ahead of schedule.
