Rider

Brooklyn Bistro
Visual Identity Design

James Beard Award-winning chef, Patrick Connolly recently announced the opening of Rider, a contemporary bistro located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

The menu at Rider will focus on a variety of innovative and soulful dishes. The interior space is a stunning balance of natural and industrial materials, high design and inherent warmth. The name “Rider” comes from the idea of a ‘hospitality rider’ that recording / touring artists submit to a venue prior to their arrival. The name is a nod to the restaurant’s relationship with National Sawdust, the new music venue and artist incubator space with which Rider shares its location. Chances are you've heard the legendary tales of (the late, great) David Bowie, Brittany Spears and Van Halen's riders?

The Rider logotype consists of a family of custom type forms that embrace the bold, minimal and industrial attributes of the physical space. Part of Patrick's creative brief to Alphabet Arm was to "avoid all the commonly used logo trends of Brooklyn at the moment". That of course played nicely into the Alphabet Arm mode of thinking. The final visual identity system is a modular set that can be atomized down to a simple R icon. The logotype itself - featuring no counters within the letterforms - naturally lends itself to double as a stencil. After developing a tertiary color palette and rules around complementary typography for the business card suite, Patrick and his team have taken the branding & application guidelines and run with them! Check out their Instagram feed for the latest and greatest and hold the brown M & Ms.

I came to Alphabet Arm without a clue of how I wanted my logo to look. All I knew is that I wanted a custom font and an object that would represent our brand. I shared mood boards, menus, inspiration and Aaron even visited the space in Brooklyn while under construction to get a feel. He presented several thoughtful, varied, and inventive treatments and I went with the one which spoke to me the loudest. In building my business, my hope was that the people I worked with would exceed my expectations. I’ve had quite a few base hits on this project, but Aaron knocked his work out of the park. He can take the most scattered thoughts and cocktail napkin scribbles and put something coherent and dynamic down on paper.

Patrick Connolly
Chef / Owner, Rider