Welcome Further South

My inaugural blog post! Yay!

Tomorrow I will be meeting with a new client to go over their goals for their new business. It's a restaurant focusing on wine and coffee, called Tipsy Beans. I'll be posting updates on the design process, installation and more as I develop the space.

This is going to be a bit of a hybrid type of space. Part lounge, part coffee shop. So it's going to have a unique vibe, a bit modern, a bit rustic. I like to use the word Transitional to describe spaces like this. It's a nice, all encompassing, word band-aid.

As this is a unique space it's been hard for me to find case studies that are exactly like the concept for the restaurant, but that doesn't mean I can't find spaces that elicit a similar emotional response to what the owners of Tipsy Beans are hoping for with their brand.

Hold up - does everyone know what I mean when I talk about brand and concept?

Brand - The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products. An effective brand strategy gives you an edge in today's increasingly competitive markets.

Concept - The idea behind a design. It defines how you plan on solving the design problem in front of you. It is the underlying logic, thinking, and reasoning for how you'll design a space. Your concept will lead to your choices in color, texture, shape and scale and function of the furniture, fixtures and equipment in the space.

Cool, now that we have defined those lovely design terms lets get back to business.

This a great inspirational space because it's exactly the words I've used above, modern and rustic. I love the raw plywood tables coupled with the concrete floors and metal chairs. I *especially* love the geometry of the plywood cubes echoing the window geometry.

I also love the feeling that you get from this image, I can hear the conversational buzz and smell the coffee beans.

Remember that geometry from the first image? Here in this lounge we have similar grids set up. In the partitions, the artwork and the shelves behind the bar. It also has that raw wood punctuating the space, but this time it's been dressed up with the lounge furniture and glass pendants.

These are the kinds of finishes and motifs that we'll be aiming for in the space for Tipsy Beans.

Wish me luck!