Cardiff Design Festival

Brief

The Ice House Wine Bar and Gallery, based in Swansea is a Grade II listed building originally used for the production and storage of ice and cold storage for shipping (circa 1880).The client's brief was to create a brand identity that would celebrate this history encapsulating the feel of both the traditional and contemporary in a brand identity for the Gallery and Wine Bar. The brand identity was to be applied to business cards, menu and signage.

Result

The Ice House since it's opening continues to host national and international art exhibitions as well as remaining a social space for people to relax and share a glass of wine. The new branding has breathed life into The Ice House and the SA1 area of Swansea allowing it to enter the 21st Century whilst retaining it's historical roots, a fundamental essence of the branding project. The Ice House branding is credited in November’s (2009) edition of ‘Design Week’ (Volume 24 Number 47).

Solution

Monddi Design Agency created a contemporary brand identity that used the original circular decorative window brickwork as a graphical device for the identity. This brickwork can be found on the circular windows of the building. The typeface and graphic in the new branding is suitably simple, yet striking and easily identifiable and has been created to work in various layouts, to evoke a sense of provenance and historical relevance, while not detracting from the building itself.

Project website

http://www.cardiffdesignfestival.org/2010/none