Soho restaurant Kricket releases cookbook with Indian-inspired design
Starting out as a 20-seater repurposed shipping container, Indian cuisine-inspired outlet Kricket has become a staple of London’s restaurant scene. Opening its first permanent restaurant in Soho in 2017, with a new Brixton location following soon after, owners Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell focus on Kricket’s local feel and specially curated, location-specific menus.
Now, the restaurant is further developing its cult brand with the launch of the Kricket cookbook.
Led by London-based design agency Run For The Hills, the Indian-inspired cookbook was a natural run-on for the agency behind Kricket’s interiors, brand implementation and marketing collateral. And the book, written by co-owner Will Bowlby, is designed to make much-loved Indian flavours even more accessible to the UK’s diners. Drawing inspiration from his travels around the country, from Goa to Bombay, Bowlby takes the most unique and distinctive parts of his culinary journey and translates them into a book.
Taking inspiration from the design of Kricket’s Soho restaurant, Run For The Hills transferred the building’s striking fish scale exterior into editorial book design. It bright colour palette, featuring deep blue, orange, reds and cream are evocative of classic Indian shades while imkeeping with Kricket’s irreverent approach to cooking.
Reflecting the quirky, authentic vibe of Kricket’s brand, the cookbook also marries Indian spice with classic British ingredients. “We were absolutely delighted to design Will’s cookbook, being passionate about book design,” says Chris Trotman, creative director of Run For The Hills.
“Will wanted the book to feel part of the Kricket family but to also stand out in its own right. Our aim was for it to be super-stylish and really pop out from the rest of the books on the shelf.”
Run For The Hills also applied a mixture of crisp, detailed photography, shot by Hugh Johnson, and abstract illustrations to pique the reader’s interest and bring the vibrancy of Kricket’s food to life. Playful, urban typography is also a strong feature of the cookbook, harkening back to Kricket’s Brixton roots, while a bespoke mandala detail leads the front cover and threads throughout its pages.
No longer relying on a shipping container, Kricket has just opened its Brixton restaurant, to coincide with the launch of the cookbook. The brand plans to open a new outlet in the Television Centre White City.
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