Botanist by Glasfurd & Walker: 2017 Best of Year Winner for Collateral Branding/Graphics

Edible potted plants are grown at this restaurant at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel. But that’s not the only nod to the botanical theme. It started with the graphics even before the first meal was served. Phoebe Glasfurd developed a dreamlike promotional photo of a mushroom rye cocktail emerging from a “terrarium”—in truth, a glass lantern sitting on green moss, next to a bonsai tree. Glasfurd used that image on the construction barricade erected during the gut renovation of the restaurant as well as on its website post-launch.

Because the restaurant is hidden away on the hotel’s second level, Glasfurd says that she played up that “difficult” location with the branding and collateral material’s “M.C. Escher–esque” staircase motif. Mounted in brass on a window at the entrance, the stair suggests an ascent to a more perfect realm. She adapted the idea for a die-cut paper pop-up stair sculpture versatile enough to function as an invitation to the opening night and subsequently as packaging for gift cards. Meanwhile, the dining room, the main bar, and the champagne bar all demanded separate menus, which feature bits of poetry inside faux-leather covers debossed with luxe brass- foil accents. “Each touch point celebrates whimsical imagination intersecting with detail and precision,” she explains. That’s a combination in keeping with botany’s unique blend of science and art.

Project Team: Nicholas Hawker; Corinne Theodore; Tigh Sarley.

> See more from the December 2017 issue of Interior Design

> See all 2017 Best of Year winners and honorees