When you go to New York or LA, it's expected that a well known chef name a restaurant after themselves. In the more ego-conservative midwest, it might be considered heavy on the braggadocio. So we approached this restaurant assignment with a disarming idea: why can't high end fine dining, (this is a James Beard winning chef after all) be visually striking? Full of bold colors and heavy condensed fonts? We also raided the chefs childhood photos to bring some humanity to the project and to disarm the idea that the restaurant was stuffy and austere. Not the perfect family portrait pictures, but the ones of uncles playing poker, or of chef smith playing in the kitchen as a child. We were able to put the approach against everything from matches to signage to wine menus.