Supple Studio designs sharp logotype for Channel 4’s Five Star Kitchen show

Supple Studio has designed the identity, title card and on-screen graphics for new Channel 4 show Five Star Kitchen, invoking typography styles found on Mayfair buildings.

The show features 12 professional chefs competing to impress star chef Michel Roux Jr, with the winner getting the keys to a restaurant at the five-star Langham Hotel in Mayfair, London. Supple was commissioned by TwentyTwenty productions to work on the project in July 2022, having previously worked with the show’s director in the past, according to Supple Studio creative director Jamie Ellul.

The brief comprised creating a logo and typography that “reflected the five-star nature of the food” as well as “the tradition and heritage of the Langham Hotel”, says Ellul. Supple Studio looked to vintage signage around Mayfair for inspiration, he adds, eventually landing on a customised version of the Botanist typeface.

The original Botanist is a Victorian-inspired typeface designed by Pennsylvania-based lettering artist Jason Carne that combines sharp serifs and delicate curves. One of the redrawn elements in the new version is the bespoke A with a chef’s knife concealed in the counter and negative space.

Ellul describes it as “a subtle nod to the tools of the trade and the fact that each week a chef will be cut from the show”. The studio also chose the “copper-tinted gold” hue for the logotype to “reflect high-end cookware”, he adds.

A “shimmering effect” appears through motion design, “inspired by the glint of metal from a chefs knife as it reflects light”, says Supple Studio designer Spike Cardwell-Clarke. “This effect allowed us to introduce the rivets hidden in the A of star, bringing attention to the hidden knife”, he adds.

Five Star Kitchen is a joint production between Channel 4 and Netflix. While it is called Five Star Kitchen on Channel 4, when it moves to Netflix next year to be distributed worldwide it will take on a new name: Five Star Chef.

This presented a challenge for Supple Studio as the ident “needed to look the same but incorporate the name change”, Ellul explains. He says that this is another reason that the studio hid the knife in the word star, as the word appears in both versions of the name.