Chef Brand Food Story Design Gallery

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai by Paul Pairet – also called MMB Shanghai, is a modern French restaurant, on the sixth ﬂoor of Bund 18, a heritage building on Shanghai’s historic waterfront. The eatery, conceived by Chef Paul Pairet, was opened in April 2009. MMB Shanghai is a brand owned by VOL Group China, a leading actor of the food and beverage industry in Shanghai.

Details

Brand : Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Modern Eatery by Paul Pairet, VOL Group China
Projects : Creative direction, Art direction (360°), Design production quality control
Type of services : Brand identity, Graphic design, Webdesign, Creative content production
Type of supports : Print, Digital, Photo, Video, Chinese & American digital social media

Context & Challenges

The following content presents a selection of design work completed between January 2015 and February 2017, produced or led by Artbeat Studio Shanghai, the in-house Creative Agency / Design Department responsible for branding, digital creative content, and design production for all brands and outlets owned by VOL Group China. By 2017, the studio was managing 5 brands, 150 projects, and approximately 3,000 design items annually across various media platforms. Read the work summary.

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Chef Paul Pairet

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai

Chef Paul Pairet at Ultraviolet Shanghai, VOL Group China – Photo by Scott Wright (Limelight Studio, Shanghai).

Michelin Guide Shanghai

Being a culinary egalitarian, Chef Paul Pairet runs several restaurants of widely different natures in Shanghai : “Mr & Mrs Bund”, Polux, Charbon and Ultraviolet, an avant-garde, experimental restaurant receiving three Michelin stars in the second edition of Michelin Guide Shanghai. Since landing in Shanghai in 2005, he staked out a reputation for his “highly personal and completely original cuisine“. According to Le Figaro France, Pairet is “the top of the most incredible chefs of his time“; That’s Shanghai sees him as “an OCD perfectionist with the soul of an artist“. At Mr & Mrs Bund, Pairet brings his sophistication and enormous talent to another, equal love of his accessible French comfort food.

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The Brand | MMB Shanghai

微信 WeChat presentation

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Modern Eatery by Paul Pairet, Wechat presentation (extracts). Download the sales kit

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The Food | MMB Shanghai

Food pictures on Instagram

With a unique menu that allows almost infinite customization, and an extensive wine list, everyone from the ﬁrst-time customer to the discerning gourmet will ﬁnd something to suit them. Custom menus, designed by Chef Paul Pairet, and catering to particular events, tastes, requirements and budgets.

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Food Design by Paul Pairet, Photos by Scott Wright, Artworks by François Soulignac (Instagram)

The fine-dining factory

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai is one of the largest French fine-dining restaurants in China, with an interior of 1200 sqm, divided into four communal areas; an exterior of two 45 sqm terraces; a total seating capacity of 180 guests; a 7.5 meter-long host table seating up to 18 people; with high tables and a promenade area. Inside, as you pass through the dining room and kitchen, you can feel the “machinery”. The place is extremely well organised – almost like a military operation. The aim is to offer the best possible comfort food experience.

Offering quality and comfort food all year long, 7 days a week, that’s not enough for Mr and Mrs Bund. The restaurant also offers a relaxing atmosphere, with nothing stuffy about it. The music (funk, disco, French variety…), the popular parties (organised every month) and the attitude of the staff (rigorous but relaxed) add the finishing touch: fine dining turns into fun dining. This mix of worlds, typical of chef Paul Pairet, also exists thanks to Shanghai, one of the most ambitious, crazy and funny cities in this part of the world.

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Storytelling

Fine & Fun dining

“La Boum”. Regular parties at Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai. Photo extract from video by Barham A.

New keywords

Mr and Mrs Bund is not just a restaurant, it’s also a friend’s home. Mr and Mrs Bund is a creative and open-minded couple, who invite other friends to share a fine and fun dinner. It is a renowned venue in the city, welcoming all the business and creative communities living or travelling in Shanghai. It’s an inspiring, expansive place, blending tradition and innovation. Several times a year, the venue organises games and festive evenings (Bingo, La Boum). Main keywords: #pop, #70s, #funk, #disco, #grunge, #OrganisedChaos, #Freitag, #SplatchColor (keywords by Paul P.). A venue #fine and #rocknroll (keywords by Clément B.). Additional keywords: #popular, #innovative, #inspiring, #creative, #accurate, #improvisation, #human, #humor, #fun, #shared.

New interior architecture

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Map of reconstruction by Kokai Studio, Photo by François Soulignac, 2015

New standards

At the beginning of 2015, the restaurant’s interior was completely redecorated. After 5 years of colourful decor (green, orange, black) and a deliberately awkward, adolescent and kitschy art direction; the place was now much wiser, classier and more refined, with the integration of a new colour code (white, grey, dark red and a touch of purple). Following the gentrification of Shanghai, the brand had to be ready for the next stage in its “evolution”: becoming an adult. As a result, it was necessary to define a new artistic direction, develop new graphic guidelines and new design standards. The aim: to build a brand image that was more confident, more stable, more classy, but above all, in line with Chef Paul Pairet’s culinary standards.

Art and science

Paul Pairet’s work is a subtle blend of art and science. Bold, sophisticated, minimal and generous. To fit into this universe, we proposed two art direction options: one on the “artsy” side, with clearly identifiable references for Shanghai’s business communities; the other on the “minimalist” side, sublimating and capitalising on the existing images and food design created by Paul Pairet and his team.

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New design

First mood-board

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai – New Art Direction, first mood-board. Collage and notes by Francois Soulignac.

Artsy-digest

The first direction (not validated) was a strong graphic/art bias inspired by the artsy-digest design style, typical of the visual communication of modern museums and cultural institutions; The point was to use an open graphic style inspired by art productions from the 50’s to the 80’s. Modern art, Pop art, Scratched posters and Dripping. Even with a strong new branding, we would stay connected with the former brand identify: keeping the main colors, the Mr & Mrs Bund’s silhouettes and the logo. Artists references: Jacques Villeglé, Raymond Hains, Jackson Pollock.

Re-opening campaign

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, New Art Direction, Re-opening Campaign, Design by François Soulignac

Visual identity researches

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, New Art Direction, Visual Identity researches, Design by François Soulignac

Chinese social media

One of the objectives of the Design department was to drastically reduce the quantity of printed communication media, which were no longer adapted to the habits of Chinese users, who were already heavily focused on mobile devices at the time. As a result, we stepped up production of digital media: eflyer, video teaser, WeChat Pages and WeChat H5 websites. Digital communication media are cheaper to produce and easier to distribute thanks to instant global distribution on platforms used by hundreds of millions of users in mainland China. We’ve also optimised all the key visuals, using a simple square shape, so that they fit in perfectly with our two main social media channels: WeChat (微信, Wēixìn) and Instagram.

French national day campaign

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, French National Day Celebration, Campaign Series, Design by François Soulignac

Second direction

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, “La Boum NYE” video review, Video by Barham A., 2016 (photo extract)

Scientific visualization

The second direction (validated) is influenced by the scientific visualization and contemporary art. Minimalistic, photo and typeface-oriented; with texts looking like technical mentions; descriptive food pictures, black or white backgrounds; relevant with the food design of Chef Paul Pairet and the photo work of Scott Wright (Limelight Studio, Shanghai).

The aim was to enhance and capitalise on the existing visual content : selection, cropping, cutting out images, smooth gradients, highlighting volumes, typesetting, typographic work; and to draw inspiration from Paul Pairet’s ‘graphic work’ (shapes of dishes on the plate). No unnecessary effects, clear lines, optimised use of space. A vast amount of material was already there, before our very eyes, waiting to be selected, transformed and interpreted through our eyes as designers. This choice of direction is the embodiment of a typical quote from the world of gastronomy: the main stage is on the plate.

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Food Design by Paul Pairet, Photos by Scott Wright, Artworks for Instagram by François Soulignac

Interpretation

After reflection and discussion with the chefs and managers on site, we decided to take inspiration from this type of minimal rendering for other major advertising campaigns. For the launch of Brunch by Mr & Mrs Bund (“Mr & Mrs Brunch, The Week-end Lunch by Paul Pairet”) we kept the design minimal: the ingredients as the key visual, fine typography, subtle gradations. The aim was to take the brand’s image into new aesthetic territory: not to enhance the final product (the dish on the plate), but the ingredient itself.

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, New Art Direction & Visual Identity, The Brunch series researches, Design by François Soulignac

Beyond the packshot

The apparent “simplicity” of this visual offers a wide range of interpretations. Depending on the audience, the egg can be an ingredient, a planet or – what the creative team is thinking of – a key symbol, one of the oldest ingredients, universally loved and extremely used in China (鸡蛋 Jīdàn). With this campaign, we managed to take the brand’s image above the typical norms of the food and beverage industry (the food image tradition) and beyond the inevitable packshot.

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, The Brunch Campaign, Key visual, Design by François Soulignac

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Festive Season, The Chalet, Brunch, Design by François Soulignac

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Brunch, Epiphany Weekend, Design by François Soulignac

Photo backstage | Instagram

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Photos backstage by François Soulignac (Instagram)

Awards (until 2016)

No. 43 in 2013 | The World’s 50 Best Restaurants
No. 28 in 2016 | Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants
No. 7 in Asia, Top 1 in China 2012-2013 | The Miele Guide
100 Best Go List 2010 | Food & Wine US
Top 20 of Shanghai 2010 | ELLE France
Best Restaurant in Shanghai 2009 | Eat Magazine Germany
Restaurant of the Year 2015, 2016 | That’s Shanghai
Best Chef 2012-2013 | That’s Shanghai
Restaurant of the Year 2011, 2013, 2016 (editor’s pick) | City Weekend
Best French 2010-2014 | City Weekend
Outstanding Brunch 2016 (editor’s pick) | City Weekend
Best Brunch 2015 | Time Out Shanghai
Best Western Restaurant 2012, 2015 | iDEAL Award by Shanghai Daily
Best Restaurants in Shanghai 2010-2014 | Shanghai Tatler
Best French 2009-2010 | Modern Weekly
Paul Pairet | Best Chef 2012-2013 | That’s Shanghai
Paul Pairet | Best Food Personality 2014 | Time Out Shanghai
Paul Pairet | Lifetime Achievement Award 2015 | That’s Shanghai
Paul Pairet | Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 | Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants
Paul Pairet | Chef’s Choice Award 2016 | Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants
Recommended 2017 | The Michelin Guide Shanghai
Collège Culinaire de France | Since 2016

历年获奖

A co-working with locals & international talents

Paul P. (Partner – Founder / Chef de Cuisine, Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Polux, Charbon, Ultraviolet); Scott W. (Photographer, Limelight Studio); Julien H. (Executive Chef, Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai); Julien M. (Director, Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai); Kim K. (Manager, Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai); Bruno R. (Manager, Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai); Charles B. (Marketing & Sales Director, VOL Group China); Clément B. (Videographer); Lynn (Graphic Designer); Shasha (Graphic Designer); Shyla T. (Graphic Designer); Toni Z. (Graphic Designer); Preacher (Graphic Designer); Julia Z. (Graphic Designer); Charlie (Photographer); Susupusa (Photographer); Barham A. (Videographer); Pavel S. (Photographer).