Restaurang Jord
- Design
- Web
- Film
- Photo
- Year
- 2020–2026
- Roles and deliverables
- Creative direction, Web design and build (WordPress), Brand system, Campaigns and event sites, Newsletters, Social media, Print, Photography, Film, Director of photography, Interviews, Sound and audio editing, Music curation, Editing, Colour grading
Five years as art director for a restaurant whose real story sat behind the plate: the hunt, the growing, the fermenting.
Background
I met Andreas Landén in 2020, in the middle of covid. Restaurang Jord had been open in central Linköping since 2018, cooking Swedish ingredients by season.
We agreed to test working together for a while. The test became a retainer with a fixed number of hours a month, and it is still running six years later.
Creative team
| Andreas Carlsson | Art direction, video, photography, web |
|---|---|
| Andreas Landén | Founder |
| Oskar Gunnarsson | Head Chef |
| Katarina Hoverman | Sommelier |
| Emil Svedin | Art director, Jord logo |
The problem
Jord's story was never the food. It was everything behind the food: the people, the hunt, the fishing, the growing, the fermenting, the charcuterie. None of it was being told.
The reason isn't particular to Jord. Restaurants are, as a rule, technically uninterested. Setting up systems, scheduling social work, keeping a publishing routine, all of it sits at the bottom of a list that starts with service tonight. The graphic skill to design a site or a campaign is often not in the building either. Jord had the story and no time, no resources and no hands to tell it.
Concept
Behind the plate
Restaurant marketing defaults to the plate and the room it is served in: the dish, lit and centred, menu underneath. It has become the easiest thing to photograph and the least distinguishing thing you can show. Today every good kitchen has a good-looking plate.
So we decided to go the other way. The work Jord did before the plate was the part nobody else could copy, and it was already happening every week, that was the job to be done.
The "Behind the plate" concept then guided the rest of the visual language: don't let anything get in the way of what is behind the plate.
The brand
A carried logo, not replaced
Jord's identity was not mine to begin with. What I've done since is carry it.
The Jord logo was drawn by art director Emil Svedin at agency Markus, and it's a fantastic logo. Replacing it was never on the table. My job is to carry it into a Jord that keeps growing: a new site, newsletters, campaigns, five years of social, print, and two dining rooms that didn't exist when the logo was drawn. The foundation has stood untouched for almost ten years. Everything around it has moved.
There are no UI animations or motion in the new Jord design. The concept rules them out, nothing should get between a guest and the work behind the plate. The visual elements has to have a guiding functionality by helping a guest find a date, book it, and turn up.
Palette
- Olive
- #4E5042
- Moss
- #898B71
- Night
- #161616
- Oxblood
- #311F22
- Bark
- #181314
The site
The site is the foundation of the communication, it is then complemented with newsletters and social media. The first impression on the site shall be what it would feel to visit Jord, the second impression is that you learn more about how Jord thinks and works. For that second layer we use sub-pages that also serves as SEO and agentic search and recommendations.
The site is designed and built in WordPress, in Swedish and English. It also has a custom image gallery built for the staff so they easily can find and use images for communication and social media.
Events
Pop-ups, guests collabs, hide-outs, cocktails and wine makers
Jord has a lot of friends, and they love to work with them. Over the years there have been around 15 special events: Jägargille, Vårskrik, Höstskrik, Call of the wild, Naturliga Vänner, Gurkburk, Nyöppning. Events run at all three rooms. Most got their own material; a few got their own micro-site, built small and thrown away afterwards, which is the right shape for a thing that exists for six weeks.
Social
Five years of social media
The largest part of the work has been Instagram. The image bank built over the years has made it possible to very quickly produce posts, reels and material for all events.
Jord has grown from about 2000 followers to almost 8000 today.
Film
Foraging, hunting, cooking and competing
As a dining guest at a restaurant you rarely get to learn about the thinking behind the dishes you enjoy, or see the work that goes in to them. Working with Andreas, Oskar, Oliver and Restaurang Jord I set out to tell this story. 'Cos if you see you understand, and if you understand you value and appreciate.
The interiors at restaurant Jord are earthy: Green, birch, leather, brass, and charcoal. I decided to colour grade the videos with that palette, to capture the same earthy ("jord" is Swedish for both earth and soil) feeling.
The music and editing reflect the way Jord functions; slow and calm. It can take the chefs months or years to finish fermenting koji, charcuteries, and liqueurs. There is no stress at Jord. Corners are not cut, compromises are not made.
The films I produce for them are made in the same way. Production on a short film can take months. Opportunities to capture the right footage are sporadic. Once we have the material we need however, the turnaround is quick.
Årets kock — mini documentary
In 2021 Jord’s Sous Chef John Persson was shortlisted for Sweden's most influential culinary award – Årets Kock (Chef of the Year). Leading up to the competition I followed John as he prepared. We spoke about cooking of course and also his own origins and journey.
The end result: A three-part mini-documentary.
Behind the Scenes
Roles and deliverables
With Jord it's almost impossible to plan ahead. That’s why I'm ready to go at a moments notice; gear packed and batteries charged. A text message will arrive any time day or night with coordinates to a spot deep in the forest where a few hours later we’ll be foraging or hunting.
The material is captured over longer periods of time and loosely based around themes. Like charcuteries, hunting, and fermentation, rather than scripted in great detail and shot sequentially.
- Director of Photography
- Interviews
- Sound and audio editing
- Music curation
- Editing
- Colour grading
Result
What it earned
Jord holds a Michelin Green Star, sits in White Guide and the 360 Eat Guide, was named Årets Viltkrog — Sweden's game restaurant of the year — in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and Andreas Landén took Årets Hagdahlskock in 2022.
Those are the restaurant's awards, won in the kitchen and in the field. What the work did was make the reason for them visible from outside the building. The clearest evidence I can offer for it is the arrangement itself: a test in 2020 that is still a retainer in 2026.
