Project Overview

KLAUS LEUENBERGER SPEISEWERK

One chef de cuisine,
two restaurants and
a common brand

Year

Since 2012

Service areas

Strategy, Brand, Naming, Text, Typography, Photo Production, Print, Digital, Signage

Partner

Oliver Ritz, Flexlane Loris & Livia, Claudia Zuber

Web

After a long journey as chef de cuisine on the ocean liner Queen Elisabeth II, at the palace of the Emir of Qatar and Hotel Bristol in Warsaw, Klaus Leuenberger returned to his countryside roots in Switzerland. There he started working with small local producers to create his vision of an organic cuisine de terroir. In this spirit he ran the historic restaurant St.Georg in Ernen for 20 years earning him 14 points Gault-Millau. Over the course of the past decade, he opened up the restaurants Mühle and Erner Garten in the high valley of Goms and launched his own line of local deli products.

St. Georg stationery with letterhead, card and business cards

Village lane with dark timber houses and patches of snow near the restaurant St. Georg

Rack of lamb with sauce and vegetable purée on a white plate, cooked by Klaus Leuenberger

St. Georg restaurant website with a food photograph on a desktop screen

Menus for the restaurants Mühle and St. Georg on wooden clipboards

Restaurant Mühle, a timber chalet in the snow with a flag and a yellow sign at the entrance

Rustic meat dish with herb dumpling on a white plate on a stone table at restaurant Mühle

Two folded leaflets for the restaurants St. Georg and Mühle with black-and-white photos

Open leaflet with text and black-and-white photos of the St. Georg and Mühle buildings

Unfolded leaflet from Klaus Leuenberger Speisewerk with a large black-and-white photo of a dish

In the course of the acquisition of restaurant Mühle, Varese Corridor has devised a clear positioning and corporate design for both restaurants. The branding should take into account the individual character of both places but also clearly convey their common philosophy defined by its originator. We created two brands that differ only in terms of logotype and colour but share the same typefaces, style of imagery, layout and paper stock. These are complemented by the umbrella brand ‘Klaus Leuenberger Speisewerk’ acting here as an understated sender element. The choice of materials and typography as well as the hot foil stamping reflect upon the duality of rustic tradition versus modern finesse inherent in his cuisine.

In 2017 Leuenberger opened up the restaurant ‘Erner Garten’ as part of a new multi-generation development on the edge of the historic village. Due to its ecological construction techniques and the integration of organic farming, the project constitutes an ideal domain for Leuenberger’s working spirit. For this latest enterprise, Varese Corridor has conceived a visual identity in line with the branding of the other restaurants and developed communication activities in print and digital.

Speisewerk deli products: jars and a bag of biscuits with typographic labels in front of wood

Hands holding a sprouting root vegetable in front of a blue knitted jumper, Speisewerk

Besides running his gastronomic ventures, Leuenberger has launched his own line of deli products in collaboration with the Landscape Park Binntal. The range includes a variety of unconventional products from wild and rare ingredients and made according to vintage or offbeat recipes. Varese Corridor has advised on assortment and developed packaging solutions including comprehensive copy on origin and history of each delicacy. Moreover, we implemented adequate promotional material, order sheets and web content.