Gemma's Kitchen

01 — The Brief

Goan Restaurant
IC Colony, Mumbai
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Brand identity system

Gemma's Kitchen is a Goan restaurant in IC Colony, Mumbai — a place that begins with a love story and serves the food that came with it.

It needed an identity from the mark outward: a name to hang above the door, a menu to hold at the table, a face for Instagram. One system that would carry the same warmth across signage, print, and screen.

The ask was a wordmark and a colour world — enough to open with, and consistent enough to grow into.

02 — What We Found

Goa is a place you recognise before you can name it. The identity had to feel that way — coastal and Catholic-Goan, without spelling it out.

There is a shared visual memory to draw on. The deep bottle green of old Goan shutters and colonial-era signboards. The warm gold of a hand-painted name board. The azulejo blue on church walls and house facades — the same blue that saturates Mario Miranda's Goa.

An identity could lean on that memory rather than invent a new one. The work was choosing which notes to play, and where — so the brand reads as a place first and a logo second.

Two surfaces set the terms. The name board has to carry from road distance, day and night. The menu has to feel personal in the hand. A single palette had to serve both without compromise.

03 — Our Approach

Settle the mark first. Let colour carry the place.

01 Three typographic directions. We drew the wordmark three ways — one bold and dramatic, one warm and flowing, one bold and rounded — so the voice could be chosen by eye before anything else was committed.
02 A palette grounded in Goa. Forest green and warm gold as the primary; parchment and deep ink for print; a dark, cream-script reversal for evenings and digital; azulejo teal held back as the accent.
03 One job per colour. Each palette was assigned the surface it performs best on — green and gold for the name board, parchment and ink for the menu, dark and cream for the lit evening sign and the feed. The system stays coherent because nothing is asked to do everything.

04 — The Work

The Wordmark

Three voices for one name, narrowed to the right one.

Each direction reads cleanly at a glance and holds up at signage scale — the difference is tone. The review chooses the voice; colour follows.

Kaushan — bold & dramatic The most confident of the three. A script with weight, made to command a name board.
Yesteryear — warm & flowing Softer and more personal — closer to a hand-written recipe card than a storefront.
Lobster — bold & rounded Friendly and full, with the roundness of a welcoming kitchen.

[ Artwork — three wordmark directions: Kaushan, Yesteryear, Lobster ]

The wordmark — three directions for review

The Colour System

Four palettes, each with a clear home — together they cover every surface the restaurant lives on, from the road to the feed.

Forest green & gold — primary The name board above the door. Maximum contrast, legible day and night from road distance, with genuine Goan-Portuguese authority.
Parchment & ink — print The inside of a hand-written recipe card. The menu, the visiting card, the default page — the version people hold in their hands.
Dark & cream — evening & digital The lit evening variant: a glowing sign after dark, and the strongest performer on the Instagram feed and backlit signage.
Azulejo teal — accent The most distinctly Goan note — tile blue from church walls and old facades. Held for story covers, seasonal inserts, and highlights.

[ Specimen — four-palette colour system with surface assignments ]

The colour system — four palettes, one identity

In Place

The mark was carried onto the surfaces that matter — the name board at scale, the menu cover and inside pages, the visiting card, and a circular monogram for the Instagram profile — then delivered as a full set of formats: light, dark, mono, and reversed.

[ Mockups — name board, menu, visiting card, profile monogram ]

Applications — signage, menu, card, and profile mark

05 — The Result

A mark that reads at a glance The name carries from road distance and holds its character at every size — exactly what a storefront identity has to do.
A palette that belongs to Goa Green and gold, parchment and ink, azulejo teal — colours with real Goan-Portuguese memory, so the brand feels like a place, not a logo.
One system, every surface Signage, menu, visiting card, and feed each get the palette built for them, while staying unmistakably the same restaurant.
Ready to open with Delivered across light, dark, mono, and reversed formats — enough to launch on, and consistent enough to grow into.

A Goan kitchen's identity, built to read from the road.

Gemma's Kitchen

Three voices for one name, narrowed to the right one.