Designing an identity that turns heads, literally.

About

Desinental was a Melbourne-based restaurant that brought Indian and Continental cuisines together on one plate. Founded by a couple who believed food could bridge cultures, it served bold, experimental dishes that celebrated contrast, curiosity, and creativity.

BrandingVisual Communication

Detailed Scope

Brand Strategy
Visual Identity Design
Logo Design
Brand Language
Typography System
Packaging Design
Environmental & Spatial Branding
Marketing Collateral Design

Challenge

Desinental needed a brand identity that could match its adventurous menu. The idea of fusion food was familiar, but the way they approached it was not. They wanted an identity that captured their wild spirit, appealed to diverse audiences, and stood out in a competitive food scene.

Solution

Dreamjar created a visual identity as daring as the restaurant itself. At its core was an upside-down logo that showed one face when upright and another when flipped, symbolising two worlds coming together. The design used vibrant colours, expressive typography, and a playful system that extended across menus, packaging, and in-store branding, bringing Desinental’s experimental energy to life.

Desinental came to us with an idea bubbling with chaos & charm. A little restaurant in Melbourne where Indian and Western cuisines came together on one plate. It wasn’t fusion for the sake of it, but a way to bring two worlds and two audiences to the same table. They were just starting out, building a space that mixed flavours, cultures, and conversations. The food was going to be fun, fearless, and full of surprises, and they wanted a brand identity that felt the same. Something that could capture their madness before it even hit the plate.

Flipping perspectives: The method behind the madness.

Before the logo took form, we explored everything from reversible illustrations and ambigram art to old Indian candy packaging that changed faces when flipped. We wanted to understand how a single image could tell two stories, how inversion could create intrigue instead of confusion. It became about finding meaning in the flip, a design that challenged perspective while keeping the brand’s playful spirit intact.

Madness, illustrated.

The logo for Desinental was built to surprise. What looked like one face at first glance became another when turned upside down, two personalities sharing one plate. It captured exactly what the restaurant stood for: two worlds coming together through food. The mark was bold, witty, and impossible to forget, much like the dishes it represented. Around it, we created a logo family that kept the same playfulness but allowed more flexibility. The primary mark carried the dual-face illustration with bilingual type, while the secondary and tertiary versions focused on typography and stripes for simpler use. No matter which version appeared, the brand identity always stayed true to its upside-down spirit.

The science of delicious disorder.

The identity mixed contrast like Desinental’s recipes. Colours collided on purpose, fighting for space yet somehow getting along. Stripes and blocks ran wild across collaterals, turning repetition into rhythm.
Even the type spoke two languages at once, switching between scripts like it couldn’t pick a side.
The visual identity was loud, playful, and perfectly balanced in its own chaos.

Desinental started as an experiment we weren’t sure would make sense, and that was the fun part. The food was wild, the identity wilder, and for a while, it all came together beautifully.

The restaurant may have shut its doors, but the spirit of its brand identity still feels alive in what we created. Not every project finds a forever home, and that’s okay. Some just exist to remind us how much fun it is to make things that surprise people, including ourselves.

All Work

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