[IRVINE BUTTERY] modernising

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[Irvine Buttery]
Modernising a long-established local cafe

This is a concept project with a very personal resonance. The Irvine Buttery is a little cafe long-established inside an old, quaint hillfoot building in the middle of Irvine town centre. I had frequented it on a weekly basis since I was a child and to this day, it has not changed a single bit.

It has rustic charm, with its worn wooden furniture and food full of home comforts character. Family-run for years, it is staffed (and otherwise) by now three generations of the proprietors.

I decided to try out a little bit of modernising by giving the Buttery a new logo and imagining a slightly-updated front entrance facade.

[The solution]

Playing on the traditional meaning of a 'buttery' - an room in medieval castles and mansions which was mainly used for storage and populated by servants - it conjured images of small-scale family estates, maintained by long-serving and warm employees. This led me to various other images of cottages in Scottish clan-time countrysides and large-stone fireplaces. To me, the fireplace is the ultimate symbol of warmth from simpler times. This forms the border around the logo. The kettle represents the cafe business as well as continuing the rustic theme. The colours used are in continuing the theme of warmth and home.

In the shop facade concept, there is an old-style cast-iron black sign with the logo cut out hanging on the wall, and the namestyle is splashed across the front above the front entrance.