Set of menus · La Cour Jardin A multisensory ode to the plant world
The budding of spring 2023 gently projected our workshops into the peaceful, summery world of La Cour Jardin. The new visual identity of Plaza Athénée’s iconic restaurant—run by chef Jean Imbert since January 2022—was designed in its entirety by the studio Violaine & Jérémy, and produced by the Imprimerie du Marais.
The creative duo took inspiration from the spirit of the place—from its living-wall facades combining the deep-green of Virginia creeper with the blazing-red of geraniums—but also and especially from Jean Imbert’s refined seasonal cuisine, as they developed an art direction expressing “luxury, calm, and delight”.
In order to bring their vision to life, Violaine & Jérémy enlisted our expertly combined skills. The logos and typographies with plant-like curves created for the occasion were embossed, foiled and debossed with a precision that enhanced both the refinement of the designs and the textured beauty of the papers. The florid, sunny menus were cut and hand-finished to measure. The illustrations hand-drawn by the duo, borrowing from the aesthetics of an encyclopaedic herbarium, were reproduced through four-colour litho printing. After a veritable balancing act in the management of colours and their profiles, our litho operator and photo-proofer succeeded in preserving all their subtle freshness. As a result, they fully reveal the true nature of the products crafted by the chef.
This transformation of the restaurant’s visual identity was also supported by a selection of cotton and/or recycled papers. “Cedar”, “cactus”, “sunshine particles”: their names evoke the natural inspiration of their patterns, textures, colours and inlays.
As for the green cover of the main menu of dishes, it is ornamented with an emblematic seal representing a Virginia creeper leaf, finely cut in a thick white paper, as pure and cottony as an absinthe-white veil. Like a mirage, the sublime dry multi-level embossing reveals every detail of the façade of the legendary Parisian luxury hotel that houses La Cour Jardin.
Resulting from a deep collaborative dialogue between print design and savoir-faire, the created set plunges us into a suspended interlude, conducive to stationary travel.
Behind the scene
The Workshops
"From the menus to the plates, a tasteful imprint is left on all of the senses."
