BRAND IDENTITY FOR A CELEBRITY
CHEF-DRIVEN RESTAURANT CONCEPT
CALIFORNIA ENGLISH IS A CELEBRITY CHEF-DRIVEN RESTAURANT AT A CLASS A OFFICE CAMPUS IN SORRENTO VALLEY.
Scope:
Brand Identity
Signage and Wayfinding
Art Curation
Spacial integration
Interior Direction
Social Media Concepts
Event Production
Website
Team:
Jessica Haberer, Creative Direction, Design, FF&E
Bre Alarcon, Sr. Graphic Designer
Sofia Contreras, Jr. Graphic Designer
PGAL, Interiors
Glanz, Signage Fabrication
Channin Fulton, Muralist
Matt Forderer, Muralist
Andy Jacobsohn, Photography
Haley Hill, Photography
PROJECT BRIEF
The Ask:
The client needed a brand identity that balanced Chef Richard Blais' personal credo — don't take yourself too seriously — with a restaurant experience that felt fun and memorable to a wide range of audiences. It also had to hold Blais' concept: British cuisine built on the highest-quality, locally sourced California ingredients, set in an atmosphere inspired by European brasseries and the SoCal mindset.
The Direction:
The name, cuisine, and interior were already set — a fixed frame to think unconventionally within. The brand leans into the same collision at the heart of the concept itself: the effortless ease of the Golden State meeting the classic charisma of the English countryside. Work and play, formal and casual, two cultures worn at once. I led brand identity development from concept through completion, partnering with an internal design team on graphic design and PGAL Architects on interiors, and incorporated the identity into the space and launch events.
The Outcome:
The outcome is "the Chap" — a mascot in retro sunnies and a derby hat, one piece borrowed from each culture, standing in for the brand's whole attitude in a single figure. The logotype pairs a serif and a sans-serif letterform side by side, holding both casual and formal cultures in the same mark the way the Chap does. A custom pattern, built from the lettering itself, reads like an invented language — proof the brand isn't just borrowing British and Californian signals but fusing them into something new. That fusion carries through everything downstream: framed pets in garb, a trippy neon sign, cheeky street-style signage, even the plating.
A COMBINATION OF THE UNEXPECTED
A PLACE OF STOKE AND CHARM
Signage and wayfinding mash up two very British touchstones — the Underground roundel, reworked for the restaurant's "to-go" section using British terminology, and pavement graphics lifted off London street corners, with the Chap seamlessly incorporated. A neon sign in a psychedelic font straight out of California counterculture complements these.