A new icon for London's food culture.
As a former storage space for bananas, it's easy to understand why we used an iconic banana as the feature of the Seven Dials Market brand and identity design. An iconic building, in an iconic location, deserves an iconic identity.
Inhabiting an enormous space just off Seven Dials in Covent Garden, Seven Dials Market is London's most exciting food development in some time. Developed by street food veterans, KERB the market holds over 20 food vendors, offering delicious food from donuts, to Ramen, Bao buns and the world's first revolving cheese restaurant.
The simple, colourful identity for Seven Dials Market uses a series hand-drawn illustrations of bananas. The banana is then used in signage, online and most strikingly as a huge sculptural piece we designed to be sat on, touched and Instagrammed.
As a new, fresh, innovative approach to the food culture of London, Seven Dials Market needed a number of simple, effective expressions to carry its message. 'Tastes like London' became its unofficial strapline, not only to generate some curiosity before the launch, but also to be used within the space.
The identity design is a simple combination of warm colors, strong typography and banana illustrations. The hand-drawn bananas work in a series, with variation in both colors and style.
The identity was applied extensively across the building, marketing and online. The Seven Dials Market website can be found in all its glory here
With such a huge site, spread over a London city block, with over 20 vendors, the signage applications were extensive. From exterior signage, to interior vendor signage and wayfinding (not to mention our huge banana sculpture!) we worked hard to establish the brand and a happy flow of customers through the space.
The signs are all beautifully detailed, and with the exterior bananas and these simple white extruded letters, perfectly express the brand we designed.
The aim of the signage system is to create a visible landmark in Covent Garden, and to gently draw people into the experience and the delicious food!
The space is broken down into 2 distinct sections. ‘Cucumber Alley’ houses a row of speciality produce stalls, and ‘Banana Warehouse’ holds a series of countertop cafes, street food kitchens and communal seating.
All the vendor signs in the space have been created using a flexible system of interchangeable pre-cut letters, that slide along an uplit fascia panel. Clever!
'Tastes like London' makes an appearance in the Banana Warehouse too.
Cucumber Alley stretches between Shorts Garden and Earlham Street, spanning the wedge of Seven Dials. It's full of speciality and fresh food stalls.
