Eat, drink, love – that’s the motto of Abstinence, a stylish restaurant located on La Motte-Picquet in Paris. Abstinence is the latest addition to the portfolio of Guillaume Benard’s Fitz Group, which already operates the Fitzgerald and the Vesper. According to Elodie Rouge’s review for Do It in Paris, Abstinence is distinguished by “a highly instagrammable decor”:

Here, you can disembark to flirt with your loved one or have fun in a group around a cocktail and plates to share in a glam and sophisticated atmosphere with a socialite clientele at the rendezvous.

Velvet curtains, candles, banquettes and tall seats in olive or tobacco leather, vibrant playlist, impressive Sarrancolin marble bar, extraordinary glass roof that fills the place with incredible light: the tone of this singularly cool address in the 15th district is set!

This mix of cool and chic extends to the typography. While the logotype sports whimsical sans-serif caps with Art Nouveau characteristics, all other text from the menus to the website is rendered in a contemporary serif with sharp details.

Abstinence’s visual identity was conceived by Abmo. The Paris-based studio led by Sonia Cordier and Dezyderiusz Gusta specializes in spectacular identities for the hospitality industry, see for example their work for Frenchie Restaurant and Hotel Sookie.

For the logo, Abmo created a custom typeface: Abstinence is characterized by a high waistline and an idiosyncratic S. The font has wide caps in the uppercase and narrrower alternates in the lowercase, which get mixed via OpenType features. Keussel provided the font production.

The brand typeface is Rector. Drawn by Type & Media graduate Hrvoje Živčić, it was published by Production Type in 2021, just a few months before Abstinence opened its doors. Rector often is used in all caps and big sizes, like for the three-word messages “EAT DRINK LOVE” or “OPEN ALL SUMMER”, flaunting its wedge-shaped bars and knife-like diagonals, which hint at its inspiration in stonecarving and monumental letters. Rector also appears in mixed case on the website and the printed menus, where it makes for a dignified text typeface with an unmistakable voice.

Guests are greeted by the custom logotype on the awning.

Staff members wearing T-shirts with the restaurant’s motto

Homepage

The website illuminates the triad of Eat, Drink, and Love in words and images.

Rector Regular, set center-aligned

For some subheadings on the website, Rector is supported by Abmo’s custom Abstinence font.

Rector in use for the cocktail menu

Stills from a video posted to social media

Dolija is a producer of extra virgin olive oil from southern Istria, Croatia. Oleg Šuran designed the visual identity. For the logo, he made early use of Punta (Hot Type), set in tracked out caps, with a superscript “08” in Nota (Typotheque). Punta is also used for the bilingual product description on the labels, here featuring its Black weight for “Dolija”, and again supported by the sans-serif Nota.

The label material is quite thick and absorbent, so that it can soak up any oil drips. This paper was a bit more expensive, so for budget reasons the labels were printed in a single color. In order to avoid a dull look, a colorful typographic stamp is added to the label by hand. Each of the seven flavors got a distinct stamp design. The fonts in use are:
• Schmalfette Fraktur (Dieter Steffmann) with Punta Black for Karbonaca,
• a mix of styles from Knockout (Hoefler & Co.) for Istarska Bjelica,
• Mostra Nuova (Mark Simonson Studio) for Leccino,
• Surveyor (Hoefler & Co.) with ornaments from Marlene Display (Typotheque) for Rafe,
• Thema Moderato (Typotheque) with Peleguer Ornaments (Tipo Pèpel) for Rošinjola,
• Turquoise (Resistenza) with alternates for Buža,
• Brioso (Adobe) for Pendolino.

The wrapping paper features text set in Surveyor, paired with Poem Script and Horizontes Script (both by Sudtipos).

Via type.today’s journal:

The narrow geometric Cera Condensed is utilised for typesetting nearly every bit of information on the packaging of Premiere of Taste products, a ’fast-luxury’ house brand of Magnit, a major Russian supermarket chain.

The label and packaging graphic design by Russian Depot agency was awarded at the Sreda design festival.

Sreda calls itself ‘the only Russian advertisement and design festival that accepts only those entries that help our visual environment (‘sreda’ in Russian) change for the better.’

Cera Condensed is the primary typeface and appears with both its Latin and Cyrillic sets.

The Premiere of Taste logo appears to be based on Alexon.

For the wine labels, Cera Condensed is paired with PT Serif.

Domaine "Les Hautes Roches" (The High Rocks) is a Cru of Tavel, a wine-growing Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée in the southern Rhône wine region of France, across the Rhône River from Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC and just north of Avignon. Tavel produces nothing but rosé wines. Tavel is one of the few rosé wines that can benefit from aging.