Every image we create to establish identity has layers of meaning. The posters for New York Central, the new bar and restaurant in Grand Hyatt New York, feel urbane yet feature organic food — root vegetables and grape vines.
The visual complexity of the posters, now on display around Grand Central Terminal, creates a subtle suspense. The theater of fine dining can be rustic as well as refined — at New York Central.
The legends — The Meal Does Not Begin in the Kitchen or Food and Wine Celebrated — have power and meaning, too. They add a layer of thoughtful language over the emotive visuals. Both types of expression are essential when developing identity.
There is another dimension that is subliminal, yet very much alive: sound.
I love the street noise and combustion of this great city.But I’m referring to the inner voice. The sound of the words and their meanings echoing in the minds of the people who encounter the posters. Even a purely emotional response to the visuals may create an elegant resonance within. And I like to think of that quiver of delight or curiosity as a voice that speaks from a very personal place.
The Meal Does Not Begin in the Kitchen. And the brand identity will not remain only at New York Central. It will travel with those commuters and diners who contemplate what they have experienced. And possibly even wonder aloud, “I wonder what that’s like?”
