FYN

RESTAURANT BRANDING

HUNT. GATHER. SEEK

Restaurant branding for FYN, a fine dining restaurant. We built the identity on Hunt, Gather, Seek: refined but raw, minimalist but emotional, made to evolve.

Client

FYN

Services

Brand identity · Creative direction · Iconography · Menu & collateral design

Dark brown FYN menu cover with a radiating wood-grain texture, three gold-foil Hunt, Gather, Seek icons and the wordmark
Dark brown FYN menu cover with a radiating wood-grain texture, three gold-foil Hunt, Gather, Seek icons and the wordmark
Ceiling installation of hundreds of suspended round wooden discs and filament bulbs inside the restaurant
FYN wine lists laid out on dark stone: white cards with a copper-foil texture panel and a FYN Restaurant, Cape Town footer
Dining room with wooden tables, wine glasses and leather chairs behind dark timber slats as a waiter folds a white napkin
Angled FYN menu listing Sweet Kaiseki courses, with a blind-embossed icon and a FYN Restaurant, Cape Town, ZA footer
Open kitchen with chefs behind a dark green marble counter, bonsai trees and brass lamps, wooden discs hanging overhead
White FYN menu listing Kaiseki Tray and Sweet Kaiseki courses above a blind-embossed icon and a Cape Town, ZA footer
Flat lay of dark brown FYN menu covers with gold-foil icons beside white lunch menus and wine lists on dark stone
Three FYN business cards: two dark textured fronts with a gold-foil wordmark and a white back with contact details
Cupped hands holding a dark stone bowl of orange ribbons, yellow edible flowers and herbs against a black background
Round dark brown discs printed with a black radiating wood-grain texture, scattered across a black surface
Close-up of the gold-foil FYN wordmark on dark brown stock printed with black brushstroke texture
FYN menu cover on dark stone with a gold-foil icon in a circle above the FYN wordmark on textured brown stock

Restaurant branding for FYN: creative direction and identity design for fine dining

FYN is a fine dining restaurant built on tension: wild South African ingredients set against the precision of contemporary cuisine. We were commissioned to create a visual identity that could hold that tension. It had to be refined but raw, minimalist but emotional, traditional but boundary-pushing. A logo was only the start. The aim was to express the soul of the space and the food, and to build a living system that evolves with the restaurant.

The concept: Hunt, Gather, Seek

We started with the philosophy behind FYN’s food, a fusion of South African storytelling and the structure of a Japanese Kaiseki meal. That led to the core concept: Hunt, Gather, Seek. It is a lens that reframes fine dining as a journey of discovery, for the chef and the guest alike.

We studied traditional Japanese Hanko seal stamps for their symbolism and restraint, and explored how nature, texture and ritual could shape the visual language without becoming ornamental or clichéd.

Logo and icon design inspired by Hanko seals

The identity system is built around three custom icons, one each for hunt, gather and seek, all influenced by Hanko mark-making. Each mark deliberately breaks out of its circular frame, a metaphor for the way FYN keeps pushing past the boundaries of traditional fine dining.

Colour, type and texture drawn from the space

We paired the icons with a dark, earthy colour palette that mirrors the interior: blackened wood, aged brass and deep chocolate tones. The typography is sharp and restrained, so the icons and materials carry the emotional weight.

Textures drawn from nature and raw materials run across the menus and collateral, echoing the atmosphere of the restaurant. They are never there for decoration. Each one is a physical expression of the ingredients and the space.

Menu design and a flexible production system

FYN changes its menus with the seasons, sometimes weekly, so we designed a flexible production system that lets the in-house team update them quickly without losing visual consistency. Templates, type scales and texture systems give the team what it needs to produce new printed menus and materials on the fly.

The result is an identity that feels lived-in and dynamic: a design system that evolves as the restaurant does. For another identity project, see the Rooftop on Bree brand identity and website design.

BACK TO PORTFOLIO