Constantine

Naming Brand Identity Signage Menu Presentation Website Design & Development

Constantine is an exquisitely designed restaurant nestled on the ground floor of boutique hotel the Anndore House. With a menu helmed by Chef Craig Harding, the food is inspired by the diverse cuisines of the Mediterranean, with a particular highlight on Middle Eastern flavours. A centrally-placed open kitchen, along with the sharing plates offered on the menu, encourages family-style dining and exudes an inviting and generous atmosphere.

We introduced the name Constantine, because the great Roman/Byzantine Emperor served as a fitting and far-reaching representation of the crossover cuisines that the regions surrounding the Mediterranean Sea are known for. Without giving prominence to one culture, the name speaks to the history and diversity of the food that plays such an important role in defining the restaurant’s ethos.

Interior Design//Studio Munge

Constantine at the Anndore House, Toronto ON Canada

The logo mark was created from custom letterforms that drew upon the characters we found in Italian travel posters. A single olive branch, a symbol shared by Mediterranean cultures, adorns the address in an expressive show of friendship and community.

The custom-crafted menu sets for the bar and dining room are differentiated by colours that are both warm and modern.

Angled planes of colour are overlaid to create eye-catching geometric shapes and reflected in the trimmed corners of the menu covers.

We looked to traditional Moroccan clay kitchens with rustic terracotta tiles as inspiration for the colour palette. This led to our creation of an intricately simple pattern that we integrated into the menu books and packaging in unexpected ways. Recognizing the value of this pattern, the architect replicated the exact configuration of coloured clay squares into the tiles of the restaurant floor.

Scarlet Door

Naming Brand Identity Food Service Packaging

Scarlet Door is a back corner coffee, pastry, and sandwich shop on the bottom floor of the Anndore House. In complete contrast to Constantine, she is the rebellious younger sister that embodies the same welcoming warmth, but with an edgier, less serious attitude.

Wanting to honour both the seedy history and punk/no-wave scene that emerged out of that stretch of Yonge Street, we came up with a name that sounded like an entryway to a forbidden place. We cut and paste a Fender into the raised fist of a sitting French courtesan to be the face of Scarlet Door. For the workmark, we mimicked photocopied punk show posters by hand scrawling the name, which was then emblazoned over the corner of the black brick facade in beckoning red neon.