Stary Młyn

Poland is a beautiful country with a rich history and unique traditions that distinguish individual regions. However, there is something that has always been common to us in Poland: a love for celebrating special moments. Stary Młyn chain restaurants are just such exceptional places.

In the difficult time of Covid for all restaurateurs, we had the great pleasure of co-creating the unique visual style of the brand.

The brand owner came to us with a very interesting idea for a brand, but visually executed in a somewhat “uncouth” way. In our opinion, the brand’s current communication required some sorting, adding unique and characteristic visual signals. See if we succeeded 🙂

The brand identity reflects its message: “Traditional Polish taste that you want to come back to”. The benefits that characterize the Stary Młyn brand and that every Guest should feel “on their own skin” or palate are:

• Legendary oven-baked dumplings (the best, original)

• Traditional recipes from old Polish cuisine

• High-quality products and ingredients (from Polish fields, from regional suppliers)

• A team of passionate chefs (they love cooking and love Polish cuisine)

• Service culture seasoned with a touch of good humor and humor

In addition to the restaurant brand, we created sub-brands for products sold in supermarkets (pierogi) and delicatessen products. See how we dealt with the symbolism of the sub-brands – all the signets in the signs have a common denominator, they are associated with the tradition and history of Polish food, they bring to mind old times

Old mill – an element taken from the current logo, consistent with the brand name, referring to the “historical” atmosphere of the interior

Pierogi – a delicious steaming pierogi, is directly associated with the possibility of eating something warm, we put the offer driver in the foreground

Preserves – jars, pots, a head of garlic – elements strongly associated with a home pantry, directly related to the brand’s offer

In our intention, in the brand communication we wanted to include the diversity of cuisines of Polish regions (local traditions, local flavors and centuries-old history) and what the Stary Młyn chain is famous for, i.e. legendary pierogi – prepared based on a proven, the same recipe for years, made on site and fresh, always from the highest quality ingredients.

Lace/doily – in the Polish tradition, embroidering doilies is deeply rooted, which is why we decided that the use of lace with variable patterns would strongly distinguish the Stary Młyn brand

Pattern – in the identity we assumed a combination of modernity and tradition, therefore we considered the graphic background as an interesting distinguishing element, in the pattern there appeared elements characteristic of regional art

Colors – “old wood”, deep brown and warm complementary colors (yellow, burgundy) reflect the brand’s historical character

We have developed a brand guide for the brand, describing in detail the principles of thinking when designing individual, characteristic elements of the brand’s visual style. When working on the brand guide, we always try to ensure that other entities cooperating with the brand receive precise guidelines and can successfully continue working on the coherent development of the brand’s style.

Our work on social media branding for Stary Młyn primarily involved work at the strategic level and translating communication assumptions into cover photo patterns, posts and video materials that facilitated subsequent, coherent exposure.

Stary Młyn offers products in its “restaurant shop” that allow you to transfer this legendary taste outside the restaurant. As part of the branding project, we prepared packaging designs based on which the Client’s team prepared the entire product line.

At the branding stage, we developed a conceptual design, but the Client entrusted another entity with the implementation of the website, along with a comprehensive design. We believe that we managed to perfectly translate the brand’s visual concept onto the website – we always consider it a success if the Client, together with other designers, is able to maintain brand consistency over the years.