Tempo
Sound and flavour, both worth turning up for.
In the heart of the south of France, most bars pick a lane, wine bar, cocktail bar, live music venue. Tempo decided it didn't have to choose.
Tempo is a Japanese audio bar in Sète, bringing together live French DJ sets, Japanese-inspired small plates and a serious spirits list, all under one roof. Founders Pierre Belmont and Olivier Guitton, working alongside chef Mickael Stewart, had built something genuinely atmospheric: an impressive hi-fi sound system, a generous terrace, custom-made furniture, and enough space to house both a well-stocked bar and a proper vinyl collection. What the venue needed was a brand that could hold all of that together without feeling like three ideas competing for space.
VISUAL IDENTITY
The brief called for a brand that was a little retro, a little psychedelic, uber cool, a little lo-fi, and always surprising, no small ask for a single identity. It needed to nod to Japanese design sensibility without leaning into cliché, feel authentically connected to music and sound, and translate across everything from menus to gig posters to merchandise, all while staying unmistakably Tempo.
Our solution
We built the identity around rhythm and frequency, striped, waveform-like patterns that shift and repeat like a vinyl groove or an equaliser mid-track, paired with the wordmark rendered in both Latin type and katakana (テンポ). The palette leans warm and saturated, burnt orange, chartreuse, deep plum, giving every touchpoint an analogue, slightly psychedelic warmth. That system extends across the food and drinks menus, including L'Ardoise, the Japanese-French sando menu, business cards, coasters, tote bags, wristbands and a rolling series of gig posters for the DJs who play there, each one distinct, all unmistakably part of the same world.
The outcome
Tempo has quickly become one of Sète's most talked-about openings, earning a glowing write-up from Le Fooding as the place to eat and drink in town, and pulling in a steady run of respected DJs and selectors for its live sets. One reviewer summed up exactly what the brand was built to capture: a food offering that reworks local fish through a genuinely Japanese lens, paired with a music programme that's consistently full of good ideas and good taste, courtesy of Olivier's own record collection behind it. For a first-of-its-kind concept in the city, that combination of critical acclaim and cult credibility is proof the brand is working exactly as intended.
