Whitespace was asked to design a brand-new restaurant concept. Our brand design team develops a “Picnic”, bringing Thai’s uniqueness to Shanghai, China.

Picnic is a Thai restaurant, offering authentic Thai food. The brand story and inspiration derive from the western influence and cultural diversity in Thailand during the reign of King Rama V which is known as the glorious age of cultural diversity. During this era, the word “picnic” was first introduced within the Siamese society.

The primary colour shows the brand essence, which is vintage, natural and luxurious. For the colour palette, we took a beige from a vintage letter, royal dark green from the old western colonial Thai house and we also use leisure green and classic gold to create more luxurious feelings.

The design challenge is how we create an outstanding logo. From the idea of the brand restaurant name picnic, we see the typography in Thai could be very catchy. For this reason, the logo consisting of twist Thai characters forming the word “ปิกนิก”, has a luxurious touch and reveals the dating story back in the colonial era.

The brand story focuses on the relationships of couple bonding over food and gives a feel of picnicking in a garden with stacking food cases called ‘Pin-to’.

While westerners use a basket to carry food for picnicking, Pin-To or Tiffin carrier is commonly used in Thailand and many parts of Asia. These metal/enamel containers heat food, store leftovers and encourage the food sharing culture of Thai people.

The menu of The Picnic introduces parts of Thai food that Chinese customers are not very familiar with. ‘The Picnic’ will let people experience not just only quick and convenient but also authentic, high quality, healthy and cultural meal. Our chef incorporated those dishes with local flavours, making the dishes more acceptable to Shanghai customers.

We also drive the brand design into the restaurant interiors. For the interiors, we bring out the classic Thai colonial house with black and white tile floor in European style as the interior, along with the tropical plants at the front yard to create a picnicking atmosphere as the concept of the restaurant. The Picnic could transport you to the good old days in Thailand.