Challenge

The Starr Restaurant Group needed a name and identity for a diner-inspired restaurant in Atlantic City’s luxury non-gaming hotel, The Chelsea. Our challenge was to create a brand that would appeal to stylish Chelsea patrons, while paying homage to the locale’s history.

Action

While branding the Chelsea, we developed the name and concept for the hotel’s two premier restaurants, an upscale steakhouse and a 24-hour diner. Of all the names our brainstorming process produced, Teplitzky’s was the hardest to spell and pronounce but it proved just as irresistible as the diner’s house special pierogies. Inspired by vintage painted signs and a casual mom-and-pop aesthetic, the diner stands on the same corner as its namesake, a family-owned, kosher hotel of the 1950s. We extended this sense of local nostalgia to the branding, using 60s-inspired typographic illustrations and soda pop colors to create a convivial atmosphere perfect for summers on the beach.

Results

Eye-popping menu graphics greet bleary-eyed revellers, complementing the venue’s casual, eclectic atmosphere and creating a modern take on the boardwalk’s golden age. We think the original Teplitzky would approve.

Recognition

• Featured in Creative Quarterly 16
• HOW Magazine's International Annual
• Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles For Working With Type