Argyle House Camden is a Japanese Steak Fusion contemporary restaurant set in the historic town of Camden, New South Wales. COOOP was commissioned to create a brand and curate an art direction that would honour the area’s colonial heritage while playfully reinterpreting it through a modern, irreverent lens.

Setting

Camden is a small town that still proudly wears its colonial-era architecture. It feels like a living time capsule—quiet streets lined with brick facades and a deep sense of local tradition. When Argyle House invited us in, the brief was clear: celebrate that heritage, then mischievously tilt it on its head.

Challenge

How do you honour a place’s British-colonial DNA while refusing to be trapped by it? Our task was two-fold: to craft a restaurant identity that feels as classic as the town square, yet as fresh as tomorrow—and to create an art collection that turns nostalgia into conversation, not museum-piece décor.

Concept

Our guiding mantra was New Eyes on Old Worlds. We positioned Argyle House as a space where 18th-century grandeur spars playfully with contemporary Australian irreverence. The brand invites diners to experience a rich tension between history and modernity, humour and heritage.

Execution

The visual identity uses a palette of deep racing green, smokey charcoal and muted brass to nod to Victorian formality. Angular typography and cheeky copywriting keep the tone defiantly modern.

For the artwork, we created a curated collection that challenges and recontextualises tradition. A 17th-century-style noblewoman—ruffled collar, dark robes—is painted wearing a bright red baseball cap, a bold gesture of contemporary disruption. A minimalist line drawing elevates the humble Ford Cortina into a work of design. Meanwhile, hand-inked illustrations of Camden’s historic buildings—the bank, post office, and town hall—anchor the experience in place.

Impact

Every artwork is hung at eye level—never above—reinforcing that history belongs to everyone. Guests are spending more time in the foyer, engaging with the art, photographing and sharing it. Argyle House quickly built a regional following, with bookings reaching a three-month waitlist just eight weeks post-launch.

Take-away

Argyle House proves that heritage needn’t sit quietly behind velvet rope. When tradition is invited to the table—and made to spar with the present—it becomes alive, dynamic, and deeply relevant.

Welcome to Argyle House, where old stories get fresh ink.