Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Modern Eatery by Paul Pairet | Creative & Art Direction

Chef Brand Food Story Design Gallery
MMB Shanghai, Paul Pairet. François Soulignac, Digital Creative & Art Director, VOL Group China
Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Modern Eatery 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 introduces a design work selection achieved between January 2015 and February 2017, produced or leaded by Artbeat Studio Shanghai, the in-house Creative agency / Design Department in charge of the branding, digital creative content and design production for all the brands and outlets owned by VOL Group China. In 2017, the studio was managing 5 brands, 150 projects and around 3000 design items a year (cross-media platforms). Read the work summary.

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 three restaurants of widely different natures in Shanghai – A popular French modern eatery “Mr & Mrs Bund”; a casual French Café named Polux; and an avant-garde, experimental restaurant UltravioletNo. 24 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurant 2015, receiving two Michelin stars in the first Michelin Guide Shanghai and three Michelin stars in the second edition. 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.

The Brand | MMB Shanghai

微信 WeChat presentation

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

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, Photo by Scott Wright, Artworks by François Soulignac (Instagram)

The Fine-dining Factory

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai is one of the biggest French fine-dining restaurant in China, with an interior of 1200 sqm, divided into four common areas; an exterior of two 45 sqm terraces; a total seated capacity of 180 guests; a 7.5 meter-long host table for up to 18 guests; with high tables and strolls area. When you come inside, through the restaurant room and the kitchen, you can fell the “machinery”. The outlet is extremely well organised – managed like a military area. One goal: provide the highest experience of comfort food.

Providing high standards and comfort food, all year long, 7 days a week, is not an easy job; but it’s not enough for Mr and Mrs Bund. The brand provides also a very relax atmosphere, because nothing is stuffy there. The music (funk, disco, French variety…), the popular parties (planned every months) and the staff members’ attitude (accurate but relax) bring the final touch: the fine dining turns into fun dining. This peculiar mix of universes, typical of Chef Paul Pairet, is existing also because Shanghai, the most crazy, ambitious and funny city on this part of the world.

Storytelling

Fine & Fun dining

Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, La Boum - Girl, Woman kissing and dancing - VOL Group China
“La Boum”. Regular parties at Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai. Photo extract from video by Barham A.

New keywords

Mr and Mrs Bund is not only a restaurant, it’s a friend’s home. Mr & Mrs Bund are a couple of funny creative people, inviting other friends to share and enjoy a fine and fun dining. A well know place, hosting the business and creative communities living or travelling in Shanghai. It’s an inspiring venue, expansive, mixing tradition and innovation. Several time a year, the venue is organizing popular games and night parties (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

Early 2015, the restaurant’s interior decoration was completely remade. After 5 years of colourful interior design (green, orange, black) and an art direction voluntary awkward, teenager and kitsch; the venue was now much more wise, classy and refined, including new colours (white, grey, dark red and a touch of purple). Following the gentrification of Shanghai, the brand should be ready for the next step of his “evolution”: become an adult. We defined a new art direction, draw up new graphic guidelines, and brand new design standards. The goal: build a brand image more confident, stable, classy and moreover, relevant with the food standards.

Art and Science

The work of Paul Pairet is a perfect mix with art and science. Bold, sophisticated, pure, minimal and generous. To fit with this universe, we provided two options of art direction: one on the “artsy” side, with references clearly identifiable for the business communities in Shanghai; the second option on the “minimalist” way, sublimating and capitalizing the existing food pictures and food design achieved by Paul Pairet and his team.

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: keep the main colors, the Mr & Mrs Bund’s silhouettes and the logo. The new logo branding was refused because a lack of time for the copyright modification processes. 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 aim of the Design Department was to reduce the quantity of printed support of communication, no more relevant with habits of Chinese users mainly focused on mobile devices. We reinforced the production of digital supports: eflyer, video teaser, WeChat Pages, WeChat H5 websites. These supports of communication are less expensive to produce and easier to spread thanks to the snapshot worldwide dissemination followed by hundred million user accounts in mainland China. We optimized also all the key-visuals, on a simple square shape, to fit perfectly with our 2 major social media: 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. Minimal, photo and typeface oriented; with texts looking like technical mentions; descriptive food photos, black or white backgrounds; relevant with the food design of Chef Paul Pairet and the photo work of Scott Wright (Limelight Studio, Shanghai).

The big picture was to sublimate and capitalize on the existing food pictures (selection, cropping, image-cutting, smooth gradients, volumes highlighting, typesetting, typographic work); and stay inspired by the “graphic work” of Paul Pairet (shapes of the dishes on the plate). No useless effect, clear lines, empty space management. A huge material was already here, front of our eyes, waiting to be selected, transformed and interpreted through the scope of our eyes of designers. Moreover, this choice of direction was relevant with a typical fine-dining’s quote: the main act is on the plate, nowhere else.

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

Interpretation

After reflexion and discussion with the chefs and managers onsite, we decided to keep inspiration of this type of rendering for the others major campaigns of advertisement. For the launching of the Brunch by Mr & Mrs Bund (“Mr & Mrs Brunch, The Week-end Lunch by Paul Pairet“) we kept a minimal way of design: ingredients as a key visual, fine typeface, soft gradients. The goal was to bring the brand image on a new aesthetic area: do not show the final product (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 is offering a wide field of interpretations. Depending the audience, the egg could be an ingredient, a planet or – what the creative team is thinking, a key symbol, one of the oldest ingredient, universally appreciated and extremely used in China (鸡蛋 Jīdàn). With this campaign, we succeeded to bring the brand image over the typical standards of the Food and Beverage Industry (the food picture tradition) and beyond the unavoidable 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

第43 2013 | 全球最佳50餐厅
第28 2016 | 亚洲最佳50餐厅
亚洲第7, 中国第1 2012-2013 | The Miele Guide 餐厅指南
全球最佳必去100餐厅 2010 | 美国 Food & Wine 杂志
上海必去最佳20 2010 | 法国 ELLE 杂志
上海最佳餐厅 2009 | 德国 Eat 杂志
最佳法国餐厅 2015, 2016 | That’s Shanghai 杂志
最佳主厨 2012-2013 | That’s Shanghai 杂志
年度最佳餐厅 2011, 2013, 2016 (编辑之选) | City Weekend 杂志
最佳法国餐厅 2010-2014 | City Weekend 杂志
最佳早午餐 2016 (编辑之选) | City Weekend 杂志
最佳早午餐 2015 | Time Out Shanghai 杂志
最佳西餐厅 2012, 2015 | 上海日报 iDEAL大奖
最佳餐厅 2010-2014 | 尚流Tatler 杂志
最佳法国餐厅 2009-2010 | 周末画报
Paul Pairet | 最佳主厨 2012-2013 | That’s Shanghai 杂志
Paul Pairet | 最佳美食代表人物 2014 | Time Out Shanghai 杂志
Paul Pairet | 终身成就奖 2015 | That’s Shanghai 杂志
Paul Pairet | 终身成就奖 2013 | 首届亚洲最佳50餐厅
Paul Pairet | 主厨之选 2016 | 亚洲最佳50餐厅
米其林推荐 2017 | 上海米其林指南

A co-working with locals & international talents

Paul P. (Partner – Founder / Chef de Cuisine, Mr & Mrs Bund Shanghai, Ultraviolet Shanghai, Polux Shanghai); 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).

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