Business: Restaurant
Location: Toronto

When Yannick Bigourdan, one of Toronto's most celebrated restaurateurs, asked us to be part of the restaurant closest to his heart, we didn't hesitate.

We had worked with Yannick across many of his most recognised Toronto restaurants, The Carbon Bar, Amano, Union Chicken, The Berucky, and previously Nota Bene, but this was different.

Lucie is named after his grandmother, the woman who first introduced him to French cuisine growing up in the South of France. The restaurant is an homage to her warmth, her table, and everything she passed down.

Yannick is a perfectionist in the truest sense. Few people understand the essence of hospitality as deeply as he does, and that standard shaped every decision we made together.

The brief was clear: elegant, feminine, timeless, and unmistakably French.

Within a year of opening, Lucie earned a place in the Michelin Guide as one of Toronto's most recommended restaurants.

Business: Restaurant
Location: Prince Edward County

For years we'd wanted to work on a project in Prince Edward County. When the opportunity arrived, we didn't think twice.

Chef Hidde Zomer, formerly of The Carbon Bar and Nota Bene in Toronto and Restaurant de Kas in Amsterdam, and his wife and business partner Sarah had acquired a property in the County with plans for a concept restaurant built around fire, locality, and craft. It was exactly the kind of project we exist for.

Since opening, Flame + Smith has become part of the fabric of County life. A sustainably-minded, farm-to-table wood-fire restaurant with deep roots in the local agricultural and culinary community.

For the identity, we started with the name. Flame + Smith was chosen to reflect the artistry of fire at the heart of Chef Zomer's cooking. To honour the region, we built a collage of local wildflowers, grapes nodding to the County's wine heritage, and agricultural references alongside the wordmark. The aesthetic draws from vintage painting but with a twist. Modern references, unexpected combinations, and the occasional left-field idea.

As we do.

We now have a very good reason to leave the city. Even if just for dinner. And a mosquito bite or two.

Business: Restaurant
Location: Toronto

The Carbon Bar arrived on Toronto's dining scene with something to say, and the identity needed to match that energy.

We wanted a brand with genuine personality. Bold, a touch off-kilter, refined but never precious. The large drop shadow on the wordmark was a deliberate choice, giving the logo a physical presence that felt at home in a space with real character.

And the space had plenty of it. The building's history as a television station informed everything beyond the logo. To honour that past, we created a series of art installations using repurposed mixing boards and custom-designed gig posters, embedding the venue's cultural memory into its walls.

The relationship grew from there. We developed brand and design elements for Carbon's sub-concepts including GBD Mondays (Golden Brown and Delicious), their industry night food festival, and The Carbon Snack Bar, each with its own limited edition postcard series to mark the launch.

The work extended beyond the restaurant itself into bottled BBQ sauce and spice rub labelling, merchandise, and apparel.

The Carbon Bar became one of Toronto's most talked-about openings. It still is.

Business: Restaurant
Location: Union Station & Sherway Gardens, Toronto

Union Chicken occupies two of Toronto's highest-traffic locations, Sherway Gardens and Union Station, Canada's busiest building. At Union Station, it holds the distinction of being the first full-service restaurant in the building's history. The pressure to get the brand right was real.

The concept is built on serious credentials. Mouth watering spit-fire roasted and southern fried chicken that is praised by customers since day 1.

For the identity, we worked across every touchpoint. Logo, packaging, plate graphics, uniforms, custom art pieces, and wallpaper. The goal was a brand that feels immediately recognisable, modern in execution but with a classic quality that won't date.

When the space is Canada's busiest building, the brand has to work hard every single day. We made sure it could.

Business: Elevated Baked Goods Boutique
Location: Toronto

We named this one.

The brief was to capture the warmth and nostalgia of home baking with a modern, refined touch. A name that had to look right on a sign, sound right when you say it out loud, and carry genuine meaning underneath.

Bubbameister is a Yiddish word for a long story or old wives' tale. The kind a grandmother would tell. Across cultures, the grandmother is the keeper of the kitchen and the source of the most comforting food you will ever eat. The name was right the moment we found it.

Brand strategy sessions established Comfort, Trust, and Quality as the three foundations of the visual identity. The result is clean and confident, built around a bold and recognisable form that carries the warmth of the name without sentiment getting in the way.

Business: Restaurant
Location: Multiple locations, Canada

Amano arrived as part of Union Station's revitalisation and became an instant hit. Chef Michael Angeloni's original concept was built around handmade pasta inspired by Italian tradition but not constrained by it. The old country, reimagined.

For the identity, we looked to the hand as a central motif. One of the most expressive tools in Italian culture and the literal instrument behind every plate. From there we built a visual language around the idea of putting a twist on the familiar.

Tattoos on nonnas. Stormtrooper helmets. An Italian tandem bicycle crew in impeccable jackets.

We fully support this kind of boldness. And we jumped at every chance to run with it.

Business: Coffee Company
Location: Toronto

From the first meeting with founder Jeffrey Fenton, his passion for coffee as a cultural experience was impossible to miss. We understood his vision immediately and wanted to help him bring it to Toronto.

The brand carries a beautiful personal dimension. Jeffrey has fond memories of drinking coffee with his parents over many years, and those moments were the seed for everything. Moment was built as a dedication to that relationship. Two of the blends are named after his parents, Arlene and Brian. A third, Jony, was named in admiration of Sir Jony Ive, Apple's former Chief Design Officer and one of the most influential designers of our time.

The coffee is roasted locally, which we loved.

What we loved slightly less is that our creative director Adam Nathan cannot drink coffee without, in his words, going completely insane. He spent the tasting sessions deeply inhaling the bags of freshly roasted beans instead. The rest of us dove straight in.

Sometimes you take one for the team.

Business: Cookie Company
Location: Toronto

There are very few briefs that arrive with this much energy. A bespoke cookie startup wanting a fresh, considered identity. It didn't take long to say yes.

Somewhere between the brief and the first brand session, this became a small childhood dream realised. Cookies deserve to be celebrated. Giving this startup the identity to do exactly that was the kind of project you don't forget.

We did suggest a shorter name. She didn't budge.

We respect that.

Business: Farm, Market Garden
Location: Prince Edward County

From the team behind Flame + Smith comes another expression of the same thoughtfulness and connection to the land.

Chef Hidde and Sarah Zomer have established a garden that supplies both the restaurant and the local community with freshly grown fruits and vegetables. A natural extension of everything Flame + Smith stands for and a deepening of their commitment to sustainable, land-connected living.

When they approached us to create the identity, the answer was immediate.

At the heart of the mark, literally, is a heart forming the root system from which leaves grow. The idea that love and care are what sit beneath everything that comes out of the ground. Simple, honest, and true to what Millpond Gardens actually is.

Business: Food Services
Location: Toronto

Union Food is the company responsible for curating, managing, and servicing the food and hospitality businesses operating within Toronto's revitalised Union Station. Not public-facing, but no less important for it.

For the identity, we looked to the Station itself. The architectural quatrefoil motifs woven throughout the original 1927 design became the foundation for a mark that speaks to strength, legacy, and institutional integrity. History as a design brief.

The brand needed to hold up at every point of contact. Professionalism and refinement were not just visual goals but a standard carried across all forms of communication, from stationery through to every piece of collateral.

Cleanliness and quiet pride in the work. That was the brief. That was the result.