OUGD504 - Design for Print (5) - Concept Workshop

TASK 
Create a concept for either a new/fictional restaurant, bar or hotel that is situated in Leeds.
For this project we were put into groups of around 7 or 8 and I was with: Sam Horbury, Will Jeffrey, James Kames, Bobby Jones, Rinesh Minesh and Jasper Lee.

Questions to think about 
What does your client need?
Who is the audience?
What is the purpose?

Are you targeting..
Potential customers
Current customers
Potential volunteers
Students

To start this workshop we had to select words out of two separate jars. The first jar contained  random words,  and we were to pick three. The second jar contained the words 'bar', 'restaurant' and 'hotel' , which  we only had to narrow down to using one. The words we got were Hat, Calendar and Frame, as well as Restaurant from the other jar.

In order to get the best idea possible we brain stormed for each object, allowing us to then filter our ideas and choose the best one. We also created a brain storm for the word restaurant in order to give us some ideas on how we could relate each object to the idea of a restaurant. 

Here are our brain storms (the orange shows what was further added from a second look): 

Calendar

We went through our brain storm once we had finished it and picked out the more appropriate and useful ones:

• Seasons/Weather - A restaurant that serves different meals depending on the season? Could we bring the seasons inside the restaurant in some way? 
• Mayan Calendar
• Star Signs/Horoscopes
• Time
• Academic
• Religion
• Zodiac
• Holidays/Christmas
• Grids
• Deadlines

Frame 

Here are the more appropriate and useful ideas from this brain storm:

• Time Frame - A restaurant that delivers meals at obscure times? 
• You've Been Framed
• Rigid Structure/Support/Protection
• Enclosed
• Stable
• Photo/Paint
• Freeze Frame
• Set-Up
• Skeleton
• Climbing Frame
• Camera/Instagram
• Frame of Mind
• Window/Door
• Boundaries
• Art Gallery

 Hat

Here are the more appropriate and useful ideas from this brain storm:

• 'Mad as a Hatter'
• Hatrick - Possible sports theme restaurant? Using '3' as a concept in some way? 
• Top Hat/Flat Cap/Baseball Cap etc.
• Magic
• Fashion
• Protection
• Chef Hat
• Uniform
• Thinking Cap
• Class/Social Status
• Crown/Royalty

Restaurant 

The main points made from this brainstorm are:

• Food
• Drink
• Status
• Menu
• Kitchen/Chefs
• Music
• Leeds/Context
• Social/Leisure
• Pop-Up
• Uniform
• Takeaway
• Waiter/Waitress
• Chain/Independent
• Quality
• Money/Value
• Hygiene
• Buffet/All You Can Eat
• Self-Service
• Tips
• Atmosphere/Ambience
• Celebration
• Culture

Narrowing Our Ideas Down

After discussing all of the ideas as a group, we decided that it was down to two.We decided in order to push our idea's as far as possible, we would think of possible outcomes related to each idea: 

Calendar - Seasons/Weather

 We wanted some sort of restaurant that changed in some way along with the seasons. We discussed many ways that this could be possible, originally discussing the idea of a tree house. These are many advantages and disadvantages to this idea, so we thought it would be best to think what these could be.

Advantages

• Unique Experience
• Changing/Dynamic
• Bespoke
• Extravagant
• Outside
• Good Publicity

 Disadvantages

• Expensive
• Niche Market
• Safety Issues
• Impractical

We continued to discuss ideas, going from our tree house to some sort of balcony terrace establishment. We wanted to keep this idea of height and the feeling of being outside and kept the idea going. We then thought that with it being based in Leeds, there aren't many places this could be situated. 

It would be a two story building, the box covering the top of the second floor which would be where all of the seating would be. Also on the second floor, we would have to floor covered in grass and plants, imitating the idea of being outside. In order for this establishment to be more sustainable, we would grow our own produce and sell it as well as use it within the kitchen. The shop, where you could buy our produce in various forms, would be on the first floor along with a bar. With there being a dome over the top of the building, the outside would be clearly visible and so the effects of the seasons and various weather would be visible from the inside.

A similar idea to the restaurant below in Paris. However, surrounding the box would be trees, which obviously change throughout different seasons (i.e. loosing leaves). We liked the contrast of an urban skyscraper having a rural theme in its penthouse restaurant. 

 

Having been to the Eden Project last summer, I was inspired by the restaurant they have inside. They also sell their own produce, also shown below: 

Their online shop of produce made there: 

Frame - Time Frame

When thinking about time frame, we came up with unconventional and alternative meal times. With Leeds being a big city, filled with students and working professionals, many people have unconventional working hours and therefore eat at different times. 

From this, we came up with the idea to create a restaurant that would be open during these times that sells affordable yet high quality food. Thinking about places in Leeds that this would be most effective, we decided that the train station would be the best place. Here, we could supply our service to commuters and working professionals that are leaving and coming into Leeds. We also felt that it would not be seen as a pit stop for drunk people after a night out. 

We felt that this idea was solving a real-life problem and had much more scope than the other idea, thus decided to run with this one.

We created another mind map in order to clarify our ideas and ensure we were answering all of the different elements that we needed to.

Our Concept: 

In order to confirm our choice, we decided to see if it fitted the questions in the brief: 

What are you clients needs? 

They need good quality, affordable food and drink at unconventional hours.

Who is the audience?  

Commuters (Individual), Middle Class, 18-35, Professionals.

What is the purpose? 

To provide a service that otherwise wouldn't be available and solve the problem of having no where to purchase good quality food after hours. The food should energise, comfort or satisfy.

In order to keep pushing this concept and ensure that our idea was completely thought out, we decided to make sure everything was specific, including elements that could help us understand our target audience. We decided that our opening times would be 10pm - 6:30am; these times would ensure that we had no rivals, as they would all be shut during these times and we would be the only option. The price range of our products would vary from £2 - £10, meaning that our food is more affordable and accessible to the everyday traveler.

We also needed a name, and all began to brain storm and think of as many names as we could. These are what we came up with:

• Eat Vite
• Meal Shift
• Strap Hunger
• After Hours
• Chow Now
• The Larder
• Dusk till Dawn
• Overdue
• Bon Vivant
• Night Bite
• Travel-Eat
• Late Plate
• Warm & Toastie
• Light Snooze
• Midnight Deli
• Nox
• The Nox Box

We ended up choosing the name Nox, which comes from the Roman translation of the Greek goddess of the night. It is short and memorable which is what we wanted. We also felt it would have a lot of scope to work with typographically. 

We also started thinking about possible scope for this establishment, mainly thinking about other places that it could be located such as:

• Airports
• Service Stations
• Student Library's
• Hospitals
• Student Union's

These are all places similar to train stations in that they often have people around them at late hours of the night.

Branding 

Now that our concept had been completely thought out and we had our idea that we wanted to use, we had to think about producing visuals. In order to be as efficient as possible, we split into pairs and smaller groups and shared out the workload. 

Along with Sam Horbury, we worked on designing the logo and branding. To start, Sam  sketched up some initial ideas based around the themes of night time, early mornings and Greece. We decided between us that Sam would focus more on image based designs, whereas I would create logo's using typography.

Some of Sam's Sketches:

We then developed these ideas digitally: 

We liked this idea, as it relates to the Greek Goddess (using a Greek- style typeface). However, we felt it was too 'frat party', not appealing to our audience. 

My Ideas: 

Chosen Logo

We chose to use this for several reasons: 

- The use of black and white has several connotations: 

Professional - Appealing to our commuter audience
The Night
Timeless (so once the brand is set up, it would not need rebranding for a long time)
High Quality - Our restaurant separates itself from other places up late, due to it being gourmet. 

- Imagery - The centre 'o' and it's underscore - The moon, a dinner plate and cutlery, or 10 (the time our restaurant would open) 

Presentation

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