Brand identity, art direction and digital design for a pan-European restaurant technology platform.

Zenchef came to us mid-merger: three restaurant technology platforms converging into one under a single name. The naming decision had already been made. The challenge was building a visual identity strong enough to carry three distinct personalities forward, for two distinct audiences, across markets that eat very differently and feel very differently about what dining out means. The concept rooted itself in the one thing that transcends all of that: dining out is never just about the food. It is about the table, the ritual, the people, and the particular pleasure of a reservation that arrives on time.

The visual system translates that warmth into a digital product without losing it in the process. A high-contrast editorial serif and a clean secondary typeface: one with elegance and character, one with precision and calm, both working together the way a restaurant's front of house and back of house ideally do. The colour palette references a Saturday market: fresh, earthy, appetising without being literal. Illustration direction defined as part of the brand world, with freelance illustrator Silvia Tack brought in by the client to execute it. Creative direction and art direction from strategy through to delivery, across positioning, screen design and key touchpoints, collaborating with both the Verve team and Zenchef's internal design team. Developed at Verve.

[ BRAND IDENTITY · ART DIRECTION · ILLUSTRATION DIRECTION · DIGITAL DESIGN ]

BRAND INGREDIENTS

Logo: a stylised Z that carries the double read of the brand: taste and tech, legible and ownable at every scale.

Typography: two typefaces in deliberate contrast. An editorial serif with high-contrast strokes for warmth and authority; a clean, minimalistic companion for digital clarity and approachability.

Colour: a palette drawn from a market, not a boardroom: fresh greens, earthy tones, the kind of colours that make you hungry before you've read a word.

Illustration: playful dish illustrations and handwritten details that give the digital product the texture and personality of something you'd find pinned to a restaurant wall, not a SaaS dashboard.

Image language: kitchen polaroids, handwritten notes, the personal and the tactile as counterpoint to the platform's efficiency.