Seymourpowell announces details for its design work for Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, a new restaurant created by Mandarin Oriental Hotel group and the Fat Duck Group.
For more information, go to seymourpowell.com and blog.seymourpowell.com/2011/02/seymourpowell-cook-up-delectable-designs-for-dinner-by-heston-blumenthal-at-the-mandarin-oriental-hyde-park/
1. **PRESS RELEASE UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL THURSDAY 10 FEB 2010**
Seymourpowell cook up delectable designs for Dinner by Heston
Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park
London, UK, 10 February 2011 – leading global design and innovation company
Seymourpowell is proud to announce details of its design work for Dinner by Heston
Blumenthal, a new restaurant created by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and the Fat
Duck Group. The new restaurant is Chef Heston Blumenthal’s first London restaurant,
opened at the award winning Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, with Ashley Palmer-
Watts, group executive chef of the Fat Duck, as head of kitchen.
Seymourpowell worked closely with the Dinner by Heston Blumenthal team to create the
restaurant name, brand identity and key touch-point items including menus, wine list and
corporate stationary. In addition, Seymourpowell co-founder Richard Seymour was also
part of the early discussions of the exposed mechanical cooking system over fire in the
kitchen, a type of spit to express the traditional roots of the restaurant. A design
conceptualised and executed by Adam Tihany that now takes pride of place in the centre
of the restaurant.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal takes inspiration from historic British recipes, with highly
anticipated menus featuring simple contemporary dishes inspired by Britain’s historic
gastronomic past and recipes dating as far back as the 16th century.
This historical reference was the initial inspiration for the name ‘Dinner’. It’s widely
recognised that the 16th Century was a period when fine dining was emerging in Britain.
Richard Seymour explains, "We proposed the name ‘Dinner’ for Heston when we first
began to really understand what he was trying to achieve. The word itself has changed
meaning over the centuries, so it was part of the fun to rehabilitate it! Although it
originally meant 'breakfast' in Middle English, ‘dinner’ rapidly came to mean the main
meal of the day (at lunch time or evening). It has overtones of a hearty repast and a true
British ritual...which is why it resonated so strongly with Heston's ideas"
2. Alice Boardman, designer at Seymourpowell, was responsible for the development of
the graphic identity, and design work for all collateral materials. All these design
elements are sympathetic to the overall spirit of the restaurant, whilst simultaneously
maintaining their own distinct identity.
Key design elements by Seymourpowell include:
• Menus
o Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will consist of a special Chefs Table (up to
6 people), a private dining area (up to 12 people), and a main dining area
catering for 130 covers in any one sitting (lunchtime or evening).
Seymourpowell designed personal menus for each section, as well as
dessert, tasting and tea menus.
o Diners at the Chef’s Table and in the private dining area are presented
with their menus in a specially designed scroll box. The menu is rolled
and held in place with a bespoke metal napkin ring etched with the fork
motif, as featured in the Dinner by Heston Blumenthal identity. Given the
spontaneous and entirely customised nature of the menu on the Chef’s
Table or in private dining, these elements have been designed with quick
and easy on-site printing in mind, whist importantly retaining a look and
feel of quality and elegance expected with this kind of dining experience.
o Main dining menus arrive in a concertina fold style, encircled by a paper
band bearing the restaurant’s identity in silver foil emboss. The bands can
be kept by guests as a memento, and feature famous dinner quotes that
evoke the sense of occasion.
o As well as creating the 2D designs for all menus, Seymourpowell also
carefully selected all materials and finishes to ensure consistency and
quality.
o Joanna and Jansen fonts used in the main logo have been used
throughout to tie in with themes of heritage, history and elegance, but
balanced with a contemporary look.
3. • Wine List
o As with the Fat Duck, of utmost importance at Dinner by Heston
Blumenthal is the wine list. Seymourpowell has designed a padded,
leather case-bound screw post book. The wine list itself is printed in-
house on paper that matches all other elements, to allow for updating as
required. Important detail includes the use of specially designed internal
flaps to conceal the screws used to bind the pages - allowing the outside
to be a seamlessly covered hardback book. Careful consideration was
given to creating the look and feel of an old, well-worn and loved book,
whilst also making it easy to use for diners and restaurant staff.
• Bill wallets
o Consistent with the look and feel of the wine list, Dinner by Heston
Blumenthal bill wallets have been designed with permanence and quality
in mind, and inspired by a gentleman’s wallet, in leather of the same
quality and standard as the wine list. This is always the least enjoyable
part of a meal, and these bill wallets ensure the utmost discretion.
• Order pads and holders
o Similarly, leather holders for order pads have been designed to adhere to
this look and feel. Made with a flap cover like a book, the order pads have
been designed to open back to front to allow for easier note taking by
waiting staff.
• Corporate Stationary
o Seymourpowell also designed a bespoke range of stationary for Dinner
by Heston Blumenthal including letterheads, envelopes, business cards,
comp slips and in-room promotional flyers.
Richard Seymour added, “We were thrilled to be invited to work with the Mandarin
Oriental’s interior designers to help convey some of Heston's delight in the mysterious,
ephemeral and mechanical - one reason why elements such as the clockwork rotisserie
quickly got traction. It was also enormous fun – the Dinner by Heston Blumenthal team
are a joy to work with. I'm very happy with how it all worked out...restrained, with a little
twinkle in the eye...formal yet slightly impudent...nice"
4. ***ENDS***
For further information and/or images:
Seymourpowell
Tim Duncan
PR Global
Email: tim.duncan@seymourpowell.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7386 2369
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
M onica Brown
Lotus PR
Email: monica@lotuspr.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7751 5812
M andarin Oriental Hyde Park, London
Holly Johnstone
PR Manager
Email: hjohnstone@mohg.com
Tel: +44 (20) 7201 3616
About Seymourpowell – the shape of things to come
Seymourpowell is one of the world’s leading design and innovation companies. Founded
in 1984 by Richard Seymour and Dick Powell, the London-based group of award-
winning designers has produced some of the ‘milestone’ products of the last two
decades.
Seymourpowell is currently the UK’s number 1 design company (YouGov, Nov 2010).
The company is part of the Loewy Group.
Seymourpowell is currently 85 people, combining a design studio, research centre,
materials library and prototyping workshop.
Seymourpowell has a unique holistic approach to design and innovation, which
combines in depth experience and up to date intelligence about people, markets and
businesses. The company has the ability to forecast and interpret the vital implications of
behaviors and work out future scenarios to give its clients the confidence and
reassurance they are making the right decision.
5. Seymourpowell is skilled in exploiting ideas that create real value and always look to
move clients forward creatively. Seymourpowell is not just a company of visionary
thinkers, but future ‘doers’. Ultimately, Seymourpowell is about making things better:
better for people, better for business and better for the world.
Specialisms include design innovation, transportation design, ethnographic user
research, strategy and new product development (NPD), trends and forecasting, product
design and development, 3D structural design and 2D graphic design.
About Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is the award-winning owner and operator of some of the
world's most prestigious hotels, resorts and residences. Mandarin Oriental now
operates, or has under development, 41 hotels representing over 10,000 rooms in 27
countries, with 17 hotels in Asia, 12 in The Americas and 12 in Europe, Middle East and
North Africa. In addition, the Group operates, or has under development, 13 Residences
at Mandarin Oriental, connected to the Group’s properties.