The Cellar on Railroad
Located in the center of Buena Vista’s charming downtown, The Cellar on Railroad opened as a wine bar with shareable plates in December 2020. Given the uncertain state of the industry during the Covid pandemic, the brand initially launched with just a logo and a simple website, while focusing on growing a community of local patrons, as well as navigating the town’s seasonal surges in tourism.
We connected with founder Candace in early 2022, as she was preparing for a busy summer season. After nearly two years of operations, her goal was to refine the concept’s visual branding and more clearly articulate its offerings, including the space’s event capabilities. Working towards the content and design for a new Squarespace website, we approached the project as a holistic brand refresh, while also identifying strategic opportunities to optimize the site’s support of the business’ day-to-day operational needs.
LOCATION
Buena Vista, Colorado
PROJECT SCOPE
Visual Brand Refresh
Brand Positioning + Copywriting
Photography
Squarespace Website Design
COLLABORATORS
Hannah Sojka, Illustration
The Opportunity
Once a small adventure town frequented primarily by outdoor enthusiasts, Buena Vista has grown into a nationally recognized destination for its immediate river access and stunning mountain views. Despite this evolution, however, the town’s dining scene still skews largely towards casual fare. The Cellar on Railroad was designed to fill that gap, offering fine wines and European-inspired small plates, while still remaining rooted in the town’s laidback hospitality style. Our brand refresh focused on highlighting this elevated perspective and distinguishing the wine and tapas bar from other hospitality concepts in town.
The Challenge
From May through October, Buena Vista is all but overrun with tourists, including thousands of wedding guests and road trippers from out-of-state. During the rest of the year, Cellar serves a more local clientele of town residents and weekend visitors from other areas of Colorado. It was important to Candace that we clearly conveyed the expertise and careful curation behind her wine list and menu, while also establishing a brand voice and aesthetic that would make less-experienced wine drinkers feel welcome.
The Brand Refresh
Building on custom illustrations from The Cellar on Railroad’s existing brand, we made a few subtle adjustments to the logo design, typography and color palette. First, we adjusted the archway in the logo mark to have a more rustic, hand-drawn style that matches the rest of the illustration. We then paired this with a rounder, more refined font that better balanced the overall logo layout. Finally, we updated the color palette, retaining the original blue inspired by the bar’s interior tiles and complementing it with a range of earthy hues inspired by grape varietals.
THOUGHTS FROM THE CLIENT
“As a small, new business that opened during the pandemic, I was hesitant to spend money creating a new website. As our business has grown, I knew it was time to invest in updating our website and refreshing our brand.
Lauren and Carly were wonderful to work with, they truly listened to our needs as a company, respected our budget, and delivered results that will continue to grow with our company. I highly recommend Cognoscenti Creative and will continue to use their services in the future!”