Classmate Studio reworks the identity for Helsinki restaurant Elm

Elm is a restaurant on the edge of Kaivopuisto park in South Helsinki, run by chefs Carlos Henriques, Albert Franch Sunyer and Luka Balac, who are also behind the restaurants Nolla and Nolita. It serves lunch and dinner through the week, with cooking guided by the seasons and inspired by the chefs’ Mediterranean roots. The kitchen works without cling film and cleans with ozonated water and soap made from recycled kitchen oil. Elm occupies the first floor of a villa dating back to 1880, within Puistokatu 4 – a Space for Science and Hope, which is used for research, collaboration and events. Helsinki and Budapest-based Classmate Studio was commissioned to rework Elm’s identity. “We wanted the brand to sit naturally alongside its surroundings. Something that feels warm, analogue and hand-crafted,” explains Emma Ranne, who handles media direction and brand management at Elm. “We wanted to keep a hand-drawn logo and the illustration by Linda Linko, which have been part of Elm since day one, but we were open to rethinking their role within the brand.” Linda Linko is a Finnish artist, and the illustration is her painting, which hangs in the dining room. Each of the chefs’ restaurants has a character of its own, and the building is a source of inspiration for Elm’s. Once home to the actress Ida Aalberg, later a school and, for decades, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the wooden villa has been carefully restored and furnished mostly with vintage and second-hand pieces. “A restaurant’s physical surroundings play a big part in its personality, and this is something we wanted to leave plenty of room for,” notes Elm’s Chef & Co-founder Carlos Henriques. “The rooms already have a lot going on, with ornate ceilings, paintings, tall windows and views over Kaivopuisto park, so the identity had to settle into that rather than compete with it,” details Classmate Studio’s Art Director & Co-founder József G. Kiss.