A stripped-back brand identity to return a Chester staple to its former glory

The Moorings
Branding, Digital, Print
Brief

A fixture on the banks of the River Dee since the earliest days of Chester – 23, The Groves has always been a cafe. All that has changed over the years is the kind of cafe that it was. With a change in owners came a change in direction, resulting in a complete renovation of the interior and exterior, along with a completely overhauled brand, to return The Moorings to its former glory – appealing to tourists and bringing in the grey pound, but not alienating Chester locals in the process.

CONCEPT

Our identity, like the refreshed Moorings interior, is stripped back. A basic black and white colour palette is paired with textures drawn from the interior, and married with a traditional serif to convey the building’s Georgian roots. This is then elevated and made unmistakably contemporary with atypical menu layouts and a heritage marque to be used sparingly throughout The Moorings brand touchpoints, online and offline.

Execution

We have rolled our identity out onto every touchpoint that makes up the Moorings brand – from menus to business cards, the fully responsive website to social media, exterior signage to interior promotional materials.

NO.23

The very top floor of The Moorings is a luxury riverside apartment available for renting – and as a final addition to the project, we created a complementary identity for just that property to sit comfortably alongside the main Moorings brand. With a dedicated website and accompanying identity that ties back to the Moorings, No.23 stands on its own – but would naturally bring visitors to the Moorings in the fullness of time.