Bringing the five pound eclair to London
MAITRE CHOUX
Maitre Choux is the first and only choux pastry specialist patisserie in the world. It is a modern version of a French patisserie, reimagined to cater to the most discerning of tastebuds. Every day and with a rigorous precision, the three-Michelin starred Joakim Prat bakes exquisitely decorated premium eclairs, choux and chouquettes at five London retail locations: South Kensington, Soho, Chelsea, Westfield (White City) and Fortnum & Mason.
The ChallengeMONOGRAM was awarded the commission to design the identity, packaging and exterior signage for the new Maître Choux brand, to be ready for launch at its first retail location in South Kensington, London. Our brief was to carve out a niche for Maître Choux by establishing a unique positioning and to lay the brand foundations that enable growth and scale. The design challenge was to create an identity that reflects the playfulness of the products while communicating their values of luxury, craftsmanship and quality.
Our SolutionDrawing inspiration from the shapes of the choux, chouxettes and eclairs our approach embraced the simplicity and elegance of geometry by creating a polka-dot pattern. This allowed us to introduce a number of colours in a sophisticated and playful way to reflect the creativity and artistry of the products. Our solution perfectly complements the product range with a visual feast to catch all eyes. It even caught the eye of Dieline and won an award for best packaging design.
The ResultAfter launching with a single site in South Kensington, the founders went on to secure further investment to get the company off the ground. Today they don’t just do éclairs, they own the choux pastry niche and have taken London by storm — establishing new sites in Soho and Westfield as well as partnering with Fortnum & Mason — the most luxurious department store in the world. Last week Maître Choux, Chelsea, was welcomed to the expanding family. Next stop? Bonjour USA, Middle East, and Asia.