Quay House
Bringing a 1950-inspired universe to Singapore's table.
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Opened in Fall 2022, in Singapore's bustling Boat Quay area, Quay House is a 1950s-inspired restaurant offering a peculiar culinary experience. Combining flavors, spices and colors from various parts of Asia, the restaurant serves elevated dishes, in an environment reminiscent of the old Singapore.
Our contribution began as the restaurant - and its joint concept Kulnari Mystery Golf - were still under construction. We developed an interactive website, bringing the concept's universe to life - digitally - , and pursued the collaboration by deepening the original branding, conducting photography content creation as well as a range of online & offline design assets.
Branding
The very essence of Quay House is made of two ingredients: its location on Boat Quay, one of Asia's historically largest spice trading hub, and its retro atmosphere inspired by the 50s of Singapore. To portray these elements and convey them to the audience, we decided to focus our branding efforts on creating an experience that would make protagonists travel back in time. The brand identity was constructed around elements and references serving that temporal transposition. A fictitious Quay Times newspaper was invented, inspired by the country's most popular news publication The Straits Time. Furthermore, by juxtaposing archive photographs with images captured today, we further blurred the line between present and past. To reconnect with the old ways of cooking and eating, we mimicked authentic recipes that stood the test of time, with sometimes messy notes as if a local chef had quickly scribbled some ideas in a flash of genius. Finally, the House and home of the concept received the spotlight as the place who's lived, seen and heard it all. We made it take center stage and be the scenery for scenes of life, between night and day, à la Wes Anderson.
Photography
With a moody, single light source, high claro oscuro contrast, the photography style was curated to put a dramatic emphasis on the dishes and their environment. The theatrical imagery created ideally pictured Quay House's authentic atmosphere and quirky personality.
Web Design & Development
An experiential concept requires an equally experience-driven web experience. With that in mind we designed the Quay House website as branded and dynamic experience. The idea was to draw any first time user into a curated ambiance, picturing the space, F&B offering and service. The experience was engineered using a flow-like multiple parallax effect and, dynamic video content and delightful interactions on scroll and hover.
