The Vine Refurb
Family-run Indian Grill and Bar Get a FAB New Makeover
The Brief
Long-term client, Studio Able asked us to help brighten up this ever popular restaurant. Having worked with Studio Able on many occasions and having previously made the external signs for The Vine some years ago, we were only too excited to be involved.
Howard Studio Able is something of a creative genius, so we knew that this project would involve a lot of colour, typography and challenging substrates. He did not disappoint!
Our job was to bring his vision to life.
Get your Grill On!
Part of the vision was to clad the indoor BBQ/Grill with corrugated sheets and reclaimed wood. This required a thorough site survey and boy are we glad that that is what we did. As with so many buildings, this one had its challenges. The floor was slightly sloped, so one end of the grill was 23mm higher than the other. So all of the steel sheets had to be cut at a slight angle to ensure a snug fit. Also we had to work out a solution for fitting the reclaimed wood without compromising the fire guard which runs along the top.
With a plan in place, we sourced reclaimed wood, stained it and distressed it to achieve the desired effect. Top Tip – a bit of spray paint goes a long way to giving an aged effect to wood!
Once Howard was happy with the effect, we used a paper trace to mark out the design and began sign painting.
When the corrugated sheets came in, we used a mixture of free-hand drawing and stencils for the more complex designs to mark out the areas for sign painting. Paper traces simply wouldn’t work here!
Wall Art
A big part of the vision was to create an atmosphere through wall art. Sign painted wall art is an easy and hard wearing way to brighten up any high traffic area. It can be cleaned regularly and is easy to touch-up. Plus, the hand-made look is really fashionable in a world where everything is done by machine. For these reasons, we were asked to sign paint not one, but two of the internal walls.
The Cherry on Top
Wall patches have been used for centuries to advertise to passers by and The Vine had the ideal position for one! A large blank wall facing the motorway seemed like an opportunity too good to miss, so scaffolding was erected and our signwriters went to work.
Wall Art Continued
In an ideal world, these walls would have been done using a paper trace (drawing onto paper that we chalk the back of) but these walls were far too uneven for this, so a lot of the graphics had to be drawn free-hand. This is challenging at the best of times, but combine this with working in an open restaurant and the pressure is on. Luckily, we thrive on pressure!
The Little Things that Matter
In addition to all of the fun stuff, we also manufactured your bread and butter parking disclaimer signs. These may not be exciting, but they do help to protect the venue and help to attract more customers by advertising that they have parking.
