Complete visual identity for Oben, a rooftop restaurant in a converted industrial building, including wordmark, menus, signage, and environmental graphics.

The Context

Oben occupies the top floor of a 1960s printing factory, and the owners wanted the identity to acknowledge that history without becoming a heritage pastiche. Industrial but refined. The name itself — German for "above" or "up top" — set the direction.

Oben restaurant interior showing the industrial space and branding

Identity System

The wordmark is set in a modified grotesque — the letterforms reference industrial stencil lettering but with enough refinement for a fine dining context. A secondary mark, a simple circle with the initial O, functions as a stamp and embossing element.

The menu system uses a daily-change format: a single large sheet, folded twice, printed on newsprint. Cheap to produce, impossible to feel cheap about.

Environmental Graphics

The printing history of the building is referenced in the environmental graphics — large-scale typographic prints on the interior walls that use actual letterpress type from the building's original equipment.

Oben menu and branding materials on a restaurant table