August 20, 2021 Reanne Duffy

Get yourself down to Dorset. You’ll be back for more…

 

There are hundreds of thousands of reasons why countless millions have chosen to visit Dorset’s Jurassic Coast over the years and why many return time and again. High on the list of justifications will be ‘that wonderful café on the beach,’ meaning, The Hive Beach Café. Beach Road, Burton Bradstock DT6 4RF is where you’ll find it. It’s right on the beach and the views are great.

 

The Hive Beach Café clearly has its formula right. It’s had thirty years to sharpen its pencil or change course, but it’s steady-as-she-goes. The food, the hospitality, the experience - it all keeps visitors coming back for more of the same.

 

The Hive Beach Café has expanded its footprint to other businesses cut from the same cloth along the coast over the years and it has become a brand with a big equity mentioned, as it is, in publications like Condé Nast and other media. The business has also taken its brand on the road and it pops up at events in the locality and beyond in a van from which it serve tea and other survival essentials.

 

It’s not just any old van. It’s a Citroen of the corrugated variety and it just radiates charm and character. Announcing it as the travelling representative of The Beach Café required a livery and, given the brand, and all it evokes, it had to be smack-on grid. No cartoon shellfish. No prawn-cocktail portraits. No need. It’s not a fast vehicle and, even if it were, it’s owner’s reputation would get there first.

 

Reputation bought The Beach Café to the doors of Bridport based Vertiworks where Colin Crabb and his crew suffer for their art and keep businesses supplied with premium quality signs and graphics. Getting any work done at all when your business is a few strides from the coast must be difficult and take a lot of dedication. That’s not in short supply at Vertiworks and neither is an appreciation rooted in design.

 

Vertiworks took the view that the restored Citroen didn’t need much beyond an assembly of letters announcing itself and that they should be confined to the van’s hatch and to the demountable sign affixed to its roof. The client agreed. The livery-signing clearly demonstrates its author has a feel for type and its layout, and it does precisely the job it’s designed to do. It’s quite possibly one of the most restrained stand-out signs around.

 

The lettering was made using Metamark M7 SignVinyl. It’s just the right shade of blue as it happens and it’ll stand up to anything it’s likely to encounter. A saunter through Vertiworks’ portfolio confirms the company has a great relationship with the concept of minimal design. The Green Door we’ve reported in the past was from Vertiworks as was The Green Yard. 

 

Beautiful signs from a beautiful place. Keep them coming, Vertiworks.