Mono-XO came to me with two things: a great space and a strong point of view. Twenty seats on a quiet Fitzroy side street, a menu built around share plates, natural wine, and sake — and an energy that sat somewhere between a late-night record store and a very good bar. The brief was to build a visual identity that matched that tension: irreverent without being ironic, considered without being precious. I took on the full identity as sole creative director — visual system, typographic voice, and art direction — rooted in the aesthetic language of Japanese minimalism crossed with the grain of underground music culture. The artwork that filled the restaurant's lightboxes said it better than any brief could: Japanese poster versions of I Am Curious (Yellow), the notorious 1967 Swedish film, found deep in the recesses of the internet. Not obvious. Not decorative. Completely right. That same instinct shaped every decision — a colour logic and visual memory that carried through the menu, the matchbook, and everything in between. Mono-XO didn't need to explain itself. It just needed to look like it.