Smith St Bistrot

2022–2025
Creative Direction & Design

Smith St Bistrot is a high-end French restaurant on Smith Street, Collingwood. Merging 1920s Parisian chic with one of Melbourne’s edgiest suburbs. From its opening in February 2022 through to March 2025, as the Senior Group Designer at the Scott Pickett Group, I led the brand identity and creative direction across print, menus, campaigns and signage, creating a visual world that complements the venue's award-winning interiors and a dining experience that is both atmospheric and understated.

Strategic positioning for Le Bistrot was developed by Savi Communications, building an identity born from Parisian Art Nouveau and Gothic architecture, expressed through typography, composition, and ornamental detail that are both historic and contemporary. This approach informed the visual language, interior architects and industrial designers to bring the space to life, transporting you to Paris in the middle of Melbourne – every design decision across disciplines to create a space that feels worn in, intentional, special yet casual. The identity brings together burgundy and warm neutrals, typography that represents both the old and new world, and printed matter that embraces detail and texture.

Working across brand and interior simultaneously, the finer details of the identity were developed through collaboration with the architecture and fabrication teams.

The wider tone of voice is distinctly laissez-faire, exuded through production of snapshot 35mm film photography, archival footage from across France, and loose illustrations verging on sketches. This brand voice, and the deliberate wine first, food later approach is best exemplified in the design of the a la carte menu – leather-bound to match the red banquettes, gold foil, brass hardware, and a food menu tucked in the middle of an extensive wine and spirits list.

Early research into historical French signage, poster design and Parisian bistro and café culture informed the typographic composition across venue signage, and print and digital for campaigns, creating a distinctly French visual language without stepping into deep cliches, and capturing the chaos and energy of Smith Street.

The digital presence for Le Bistrot recreates the tactile nature of the space through menus taking a real digital presence on the website. Social graphics lean heavily centred on showcasing photography, complemented by a system of social templates that are mixes of typography and illustration, composed in the same manner as printed matter seen in venue.

Additional project credits:
Savi Communications (Design), Anthology Studio (Interiors), AstroSigns (Signwriting), CWF (Fabrication), MenuCorp (Menu Covers), Alessandro Squadrito (Digital Photography), Marek Reid (Web Development)