Earlier this year Mercedes Me engaged us to create the branding for their new project.

The Beijing development is the largest of the their newly established lifestyle brand experiences, a mammoth 5,000sqm space in the capital’s Sanlitun district marks the their first in Mainland China and follows launches in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Hamburg, Milan, and Munich. More than just cars, indeed, not much in the way of cars, as Mercedes seeks to engage younger consumers through lifestyle concept spanning everything from a virtual car showroom to eateries to Mercedes branded shopping.

Among the many challenges in the project, our first hurdle was to figure out  how to bring together the commercial concepts, architecture and interior design that had been developed separately into a coherent brand experience. Once the directions were set, we continued on to create branded elements over hundreds of applications, ranging from signage to menus and to the smallest details, like take away chopsticks covers.

The whole branding project took on four brands identity projects, each with their own challenge. Firstly me Café, a casual eatery serving South East Asian dishes. The position for the café is a theme of travel and adventure, as such the logo incorporates, licence plates from across the region and an intrepid vehicle ascending the logo types curves.

With Lighthaus, the highend cocktail bar, we set out to avoid all nautical and ocean themes the name encouraged! Instead we took a literal approach and featured a focused beam of light, the execution of which is within the textures and printing methods of the final products.

Further upstairs, Si Fang San Chuan, a contemporary Sichuan Chinese restaurant whose name’s literal translation “four areas, three rivers”. This inspired our designers to create a logo type as graceful and flowing as the scenery it referenced.

Last but not least, unifying the three brands is a distinctive Mercedes me Beijing logo comprising a layered set of ‘pebble’ shapes, each on highlight the dominant colour of each brand, the shape representing the venue’s unique architectural footprint.

Wrapping up the project with all of the food photography, we were exciting to invite the photographer back to shoot the images below for the portfolio. We hope you enjoy.