Case study 02
Quince & Ledger
Bookkeepers for independent restaurants, whose clients stuck their monthly reports under a pile of invoices and never read them.
- Client
- Quince & Ledger
- Scope
- Identity, report system, website art direction
- Time
- Six weeks, 2025
The brief
The firm was good, and it looked like every other accountant: navy, a swoosh, a stock photo of a handshake. Its clients are chefs. They'll read a supplier's price list at midnight, but a twelve-page PDF of tables stays closed.
The founders wanted a sharper logo. I asked to see the report instead.
The idea
Restaurant people already know how to read one kind of document in seconds. So the monthly report became a menu: one page, three courses (what came in, what went out, what's left), with prices down the right edge and the chef's special being the single thing to do this month.
The identity grew from there. A heavy ampersand, because the partnership is the point, sits over ledger rules on the color of a ripe quince. It's cheap to print, easy to spot on a messy desk, and impossible to mistake for the other firm.
Next case studyTidelark Ferries“A chef pinned our report up on the pass. Nobody has ever pinned up an accountant.”