LOCATED IN THE HISTORICAL LEVEQUE TOWER IN COLUMBUS OHIO, THE KEEP is a modern French brasserie and bar. The Keep blends the old with the new by occupying this landmark tower as an updated modern space with intimate booths, ambient gas lighting and floor to ceiling palladium windows creating an eclectic space for its guests. The real joy of this project came with knowing we’d be creating a unique brand that would live in such an iconic and beautiful landmark. When developing the name we arrived at the one selected very quickly. “A keep” is the large tower within a castle’s walls that is heavily fortified and used as a sort of last defense. Certainly Columbus is not under siege but it does have a stunning tower built in 1927.

The castle-tower motif is used through the branding to play off of the idea of the tower that surrounds you and is above you. The banner-flag serves as the logo in an old banner-man-castle way, but also as a modernized letter “K”. This abstraction creates a nice blend of old and new with the branding. The rest of the letter shapes echo the blocks of a castle and again form a more modern abstract, but easy to read letter form. The name works cleanly both horizontal and stacked vertically…. like a tower.

Services Performed: Signage, Restaurant, Naming, Brand Identity