How FAENA Studio based Alterna’s identity on a ‘living journal’

Mexico City-based FAENA Studio was commissioned to design the identity for Alterna, a contemporary fine-dining restaurant in the city’s Colonia Condesa neighborhood that brings Italian-rooted cooking together with international influences, Mexican ingredients and the changing seasons. “The name comes from the fact that it is our alternate proposal. Within our portfolio of brands, we already had a restaurant, a trattoria and a wine bar; Alterna would be a new project, completely different from anything we had done so far,” explain the Cesarano brothers – the owners of Alterna, who come from a family of restaurateurs who have helped shape the Italian dining scene in Mexico City. Faena Studio’s task was “to build a brand that presented itself boldly, without shyness, and at the same time, with sobriety and restraint,” he tells us. “We wanted it to reflect our cuisine and our space.” FAENA Studio’s Design Director Hugo Villa explains that they “started from an elegant typographic base and altered the direction of some strokes, especially in the ‘e’ and the final ‘a.’ Thus, the idea of alternating appears within the wordmark itself: the letters change direction at certain moments, but the logo maintains its balance.” In the studio’s reading, the wordmark’s changes of direction also represent how “Alterna’s Italian foundations take on new character in their Mexican context.” The monogram, Villa notes, “was built from the abbreviation of Alterna, taking cues from classic monograms. We sought to convey character and personality, reinterpreting that language in a contemporary context.”