Hotei
Japanese restaurant, Mexico City
Japanese restraint, cut into every piece of a Mexico City restaurant.
01The brief
A Japanese restaurant in Mexico City, for diners who travel for food. The owner wanted a brand that felt sophisticated and premium, traditional and modern at once, and one that would be recognised by its image as much as by its name.
02The idea
Shibui as a system. Shibui is the Japanese idea of quiet, unobtrusive beauty. It became three forms drawn like river pebbles, for connection, dynamism and balance, and they shape the wordmark, the patterns and the cut of every printed piece.
03The menus
Menus and cocktail cards are die-cut into the pebble forms and edged in gold, in deep indigo and rust, so each one feels like an object on the table rather than a list.
04Print and stationery
Business cards, envelopes and branded chopsticks carry the same forms and a restrained gold wordmark.
05Digital
The website and social feed keep the same calm: generous space, controlled type and the food given room to breathe.
Credits
Next projectFinancial TimesClientHotei Japanese Cuisine, Mexico City
Creative direction, identity, art direction, web and graphic designAlma Terrones
Food and drink photographyStock imagery
About
Geneva · Working internationallyAlma Terrones ![]()
is a Brand Designer and Art Director based in Geneva. She builds brands, visual identities and the experiences that bring them to life, wherever people meet them.
is a Brand Designer and Art Director based in Geneva. She builds brands, visual identities and the experiences that bring them to life, wherever people meet them.Off-screen
Family, sport, long roads and high mountains.
Over more than a decade in London and Geneva, she has worked with sport, luxury and media brands, including European Football Clubs, Audemars Piguet, FIFA and the World Economic Forum, and in‑house at the Financial Times and Condé Nast’s VOGUE. She holds an MA in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins.
Alma is drawn to the moment a brand leaves the screen: the invitation in someone’s hand, the arch guests walk through, the box on the doorstep. She designs identities that hold up there, with a founder’s instinct for what actually needs to work.
Services
Art DirectionCreative DirectionBrand IdentityEvent & Brand ExperiencePackaging Design
Availability
Open to full-time and freelance roles
Contact
CV
Available on request
Contact
Collaborations & enquiriesiraldy.terrones@gmail.com
Based in Geneva · Working with clients in Switzerland, the UK and internationally