Located in Reepham, a market town in north Norfolk, Laid-back is a new wine bar and shop that hopes to demystify the wine-buying experience and offer an unstuffy atmosphere for its customers.

The branding for the venue was inspired by the client’s desire “to break down the barriers of learning about, selecting and buying wine”, says The Click creative director, Bobby Burrage. “In a world where often people can come across pretentious and elitist retailers, the brief here was to introduce a welcoming and friendly feel.”

With this in mind, the execution of the charming, hand-drawn core logo was intentionally relaxed and informal, says Burrage. And while the lettering evokes a human touch it also reveals a bottle silhouette between the two words.

The “otherwise inconvenient and ugly hyphen is embraced to become the label on the bottle,” adds Burrage. “This element is brought to life in wider applications such as posters, menus and packaging.”

The relaxed ambience of the newly opened premises, which are situated in a picturesque Georgian hotel, informed the final identity design and also, unusually, the way it is applied.

While the studio is well-used to creating brand guidelines to help clients retain consistency in how they apply their branding, The Click decided to embrace the informal nature of the project and forgo guidelines entirely. They have also not specified a colour palette or a particular set of typefaces.

“We would normally be opposed to this approach,” says Burrage, “fearing that our design work deteriorates into an inconsistent mess. However, on this occasion, having collaborated numerous times before on other brand projects, we knew the client understood design, and the wider principles and importance of brand, and was therefore well equipped to ‘get it right’.”

The visual identity work is the latest in a series of branding projects that the studio has worked on for food and hospitality entrepreneur Steven Winter.

theclickdesign.com