Project Overview

Irreverent Spirit. Playful Flavours. Mischievous Charm. They all mingle brilliantly at Double Bay’s newest dining destination, Roxy’s. Inspired by Roxy, the spirited daughter of well-known local restaurant identity Damien Monley, Roxy’s brings light-hearted, cheeky energy to the Eastern Suburbs dining scene. Roxy, herself, is known for breaking the rules and marching to her own beat. Roxy’s, the venue, needed to similarly bend the mould of how people eat and drink in Sydney. It also needed to do it during a period of unprecedented disruption as Sydney’s hospitality sector felt the full force of the prolonged COVID-19 lockdown.

Organisation

Fortis

 

Team

Kristina Granberg - Head of Marketing
Emily Matthews - Design Director
Liz Keene - Content Marketing Manager

Project Brief

Roxy’s is a vibrant and ambitious new food and drink venue in the heart of Double Bay. The space itself is small. But the energy is large. Reflecting the vision, passion and personality of charismatic owner, Damien Monley, the brief was to create an unforgettable brand for Roxy’s that celebrated this small character with a large spirit. Monley’s food philosophy for Roxy’s draws on Middle Eastern flavours, loaded with spiced up classics and served with lashings of versatility thanks to an all-day food menu designed to share. The Roxy’s brand needed to capture all of this and more. Inspired by vibrant produce and quality cuisine without pretension, it needed to be a celebration of hand-grown, hand-made food origins. All shared through whimsical story-telling and a playful tone that infuses every aspect and touchpoint of the Roxy’s experience.

Project Innovation/Need

Conservative, Roxy’s is not.

Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs was already awash with ‘nice’ restaurants. This was an opportunity to create something altogether different; something quirky and memorable with an iconically modern edge; something to engage diners on a more evocative and spirited level.

Just like Roxy herself, the Roxy’s brand is brimming with cheeky personality, infectious fun and smile-in-the-mind moments at every turn. The language is punchy and energetic, with a playful sprinkling of onomatopoeia. Reminiscent of rough pencil sketches, the illustration style is loose and raw. Yet the subject matter is always active with characters jumping, tossing and smashing larger-than-life produce – a kinetic visual treatment that captures the boundless energy of the venue, adults having fun. Keeping the illustration style simple also provided a direct connection to the Roxy’s philosophy of showcasing authentic hand-made produce. The colour palette was intentionally stripped back, centring around a solitary brand hue – ‘Tomato’ – allowing Damien Monley’s vibrant food to shine through as the real hero of the Roxy’s experience.

Design Challenge

There were two main design challenges. The first was linked to the intimate nature of the venue. With Roxy’s being quite small in size, there was an opportunity – and, arguably, an existential imperative – for the new brand identity to turn what could easily be perceived as a negative into a richly positive point of difference. From branded glassware to playful signage, the design team took every opportunity to emphasise the hundreds of little touches at Roxy’s that, collectively, contribute to a larger-than-life brand experience overflowing with personality, energy and surprises.

The second challenge was one of timing. Roxy’s opened in July 2021 and the launch was directly impacted by the Sydney COVID-19 lockdown. With stay-at-home orders in place, how could Roxy’s engage meaningfully with people who were stuck at home? How could it convey Damien Monley’s infectious positivity when people were unable to actually visit? The solution lay in the new brand itself, which provided the ideal platform for a cheeky word-of-mouth campaign, driven via PR and social media. Filled with optimism, it set the Roxy’s tone of voice and gave Double Bay locals something to smile about at a time when it was never more important. All perfectly encapsulated in the Roxy’s tagline: ‘Good food, good fun – all day, all night.’

Effectiveness

Despite launching at a hugely challenging time, the Roxy’s brand successfully established itself within the Double Bay dining scene – and the hearts of Eastern Suburbs locals. Roxy’s had already hit 2,100+ Instagram followers by August 2021 and continues to grow by 200+ per week. Here’s what Roxy’s owner Damien Monley had to say about the launch:

THE ROXY’S BRAND: “The essence of the Roxy's brand narrative is cheeky, playful and dances to the beat of its own drum. These aspects speak loudly to me as they’re how I operate as a person. But that sense of fun and irreverence also speaks loudly to people of all ages and demographics.”

SOCIAL MEDIA: “Social media – and the brand’s role in facilitating it – has played a big role in our launch. People want to feel like they’re part of something and these fun interactions have really helped us connect with the local community.”

WORD OF MOUTH: “Word of mouth has been huge for us, especially as we had quite a large customer database. Double Bay has been crying out for something fresh and the new brand has really helped us to tell the Roxy’s story.”

SYDNEY’S LOCKDOWN: “We’ve certainly had to pivot and pirouette. Whatever version of Roxy’s we were able to offer – be it Date Night dinner packs, Market Days or takeaway cocktails – we wanted it to encapsulate the spirit of the venue and the Roxy’s brand.”