Design Challenge and Design Ideas

CHALLENGE
Create a strategy and design content that looks and feels completely undesigned.
The ask was to build a social media strategy and create ongoing content for Variety Jones, a Dublin-based Michelin-starred restaurant. The approach involved developing a visual narrative that should feel completely “undesigned” and establish a non-traditional way of communicating their culinary journey. The restaurant’s ethos of transforming humble ingredients into masterful dishes required a visual language that mirrored this; simple, to the point but impactful.

DESIGN INTENT

Present the different facets of the business and culture in a way that was easy to capture, avoiding the usual aesthetic of overproduced content.
Celebrate the beauty of imperfection.
Connect with the audience on a visceral level, making the viewer feel they have exclusive access to the unpretentious inner workings of the restaurant.
Redefine the standards of social media design within the gastronomic world, emphasising the real and unfiltered.

How the brief was fulfilled

THE EVOLUTION OF VARIETY JONES: FROM UNDOCUMENTED TO UNCOVERED

No visuals = more eyes
Adding no posts to the grid and using only user-generated content (that disappeared within 24 hours on Instagram Stories) for over a year generated huge interested in the beginning for Variety Jones. As they expanded and developed the business, the requirements to lift the lid and show what happens behind the scenes became more apparent. So in Jan 23, we rolled out physical posts to Instagram Reels, followed by shared content direct to the Instagram Grid in June 23. It turns out the audience were hungry for more. In 2023, we went from 0 – 640,000 views, reached over 100,000 accounts and increased the audience base to over 19,500 (on 3 platforms).

Analogue design
Echoing the simplicity of the menu, we used phone-captured content, hand-written text on notebooks, whatsapp UI and anything that would help to articulate the unfiltered nature of the content. You’re seeing this first, straight from source.

Completely organic
With just 39 posts published since Jan 23, the content has over 7.4k engagements, 90k reach, and over 340k views on Instagram alone.

Tell the story
Telling the story of the Higgs brothers, revealing the inner workings of their easy-going Michelin starred restaurant, and the pure love the team have for their work using a honest, undesigned and authentic creative approach and brand language, has landed with an Irish audience.

Make it familliar
Building familiarity with the brand by creating serialised content such as weekly staff food and monthly wine menus has been hugely successful, giving a voice to staff and putting a face to the team behind the star.

Test the platforms, measure and adapt
Being completely organic in strategy and content has meant we can trust this audience, our audience, to guide us on what works – allowing us to test, adapt and take chances with our content and platforms.

Instagram @variety_jones
TikTok @variety_jones
X / Twitter