MFWF X Village Feast
Jindivick — Gippsland
Client
Melbourne Food + Wine
Role
Event Design
The Brief
As part of the regional programming for their 2019 festival, Melbourne Food + Wine worked with local Gippsland culinary stars, producers and winemakers to turn the tiny 500 resident town of Jindivick into a thriving culinary destination.
Working alongside a line-up of high profile chefs and restaurateurs including Matt Moran, Lee Ho Fook’s Victor Liong, Smith & Daughters’ Shannon Martinez, Meatsmith’s Troy Wheeler, and Hogget Kitchen’s Trevor Perkins, Melbourne Food + Wine’s event team envisaged a sort of pop-up foodie utopia meets town fair, the foodie high street of your nostalgic dreams.
With that in mind, and given the built in streetscape would exist so temporarily, we decided to go big — looking to the high street shop facades of old for design cues, but dialling up the eccentricity of each individual business. Working alongside the team, we opted to develop a unique identity for each business rather than simply mimic the design of an traditional shopfront.
Time-honoured techniques meets new approaches — the intersection of old and new in the form of a modern village street fair.
The Approach
In the spirit of authenticity, it was imperative we not lead with elements from any of associated businesses of our headline talent in the main identity of each stand, rather use their approach and personality to influence a design theme.
Victor Liong’s pop up Chinese restaurant ‘One Night in Canton’ paid homage to the suburban Chinese-Australian restaurants of old — traditional Chinese fare that takes a bold, new world approach — complete with hanging lanterns and Peking ducks.
Rather than take the well trodden, hand-made ‘whimiscal’ approach with the town Grocer, we decided to go bold with the façade by taking inspiration from the tattooed, rock ‘n roll vibe of Shannon Martinez’ Smith and Daughters restaurant. The identity for ‘Plant One on Me’ resembles an old school tattoo, fused with fresh produce imagery, which was also applied to temporary tattoos and veggie themed badges for the kids.
The design and identity for the Delicatessen harks back to the traditional delis of yesteryear — traditional techniques renewed with modern approaches using premium Gippsland produce. In a similar manner, the local butcher, a stalwart of the high street, pays homage to the neighbourhood butcher with an identity that mimics a rubber stamp on a piece of folded butcher’s paper, or an identifying lifestock brand.
The Dispensary, a joint effort from Gippsland’s Loch distillery and Melbourne specialty liquor bar Bad Frankie, brings to life a pattern of gin inspired botanicals — think lemon myrtle, juniper and anise. Channelling a brand of ‘Native Australian Grandeur’, the application of native botanical-inspired patterns references not only the unique quality of Loch’s ingredients but creates a sense of place evocative of the Gippsland region.
The Milkbar façade took a more playful approach, using bright colours and patterns to bring to life the memories of a childhood spent agonising over the pick-n-mix, or which milkshake flavour would most quench the thirst after a day spent at the beach. This is just a small selection of our faves, along with some of the additional items such as packaging, uniforms and merchandise that were produced for the Festival’s signature event.
Collaborators
Keep an eye on MFWF to find out the location of the next big regional Village Feast.
Produced for Food + Wine Victoria on behalf of the Melbourne Food + Wine Festival. Production and install of marquees and event signage by Republic Events Australia. Event video by Einwick with drone capture by Harpy Film. Event photography by Daniel Mahon Photography.
