Select Hospitality

Branding for restaurateurs who add story to every dining experience

Select Hospitality Branding for restaurateurs who add story to every dining experience

The Brief

Select Hospitality is the force behind multiple restaurants that place supreme value on the brand narrative. They were looking to harness the individual identities of each restaurant through cohesive and eye-catching collateral to carry that brand DNA throughout the space.

Our Role

Identity

Brand Strategy & Positioning

The Logo/Mark for each location was rooted in the origin story of that particular restaurant, its menu, and the experience presented to its customers.

The Heyward, named for Charleston native poet and writer Dubose Heyward, tips its hat to the style, recipes, and history of Dubose’s native South Carolina home, using produce, game, and seafood sourced from local farms along the coastline.

The logotype is a bold, “grunty” nod to the hardworking typefaces of the post-industrial age Dubose often wrote of. The “Y” is customized with a subtle wide curve that references the palmetto tree seen widely throughout South Carolina.

Hinterlands are the regions beyond a port or harbor, traditionally considered by sailors to be lands that are untamed, wild, and adventurous. We took a multi-regional approach to their menu to craft The Five States of the Hinterland. The logo organically separates into five states of its own, while still maintaining an invisible line of direction for legibility.

Though non-traditional, the mark is contemporary in its cleanliness, allowing us to lay it atop color-saturated background illustrations pulled during our research phase on the menu design. The folding menu presents the patron with starter options first, unfolding to reveal the course options to follow.

Verlaine replaced Dominic’s, a renowned Hollywood restaurant that served as a hideaway for the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack in their heyday. There was a strong desire to keep elements of those legendary times present, while also bringing in Art Nouveau influences. We blended Parisian elements with prohibition-influenced collateral pieces like “members only” cards to strike that balance.

"We’ve worked with Funkhaus on multiple projects and they have the uncanny ability to deep dive and truly understand the project at its core. Every decision for what they have created is tied to the internal themes we are pushing when building a restaurant, so it creates a consistent story across all touch points."

Matthew Hector, Co-Founder