Social Media

I knew that social media was going to be an important factor in Cafe Flux, a cafe which takes pride in innovation and change, its important that cafe Flux takes pride in modern functions as well as traditional. Instagram is a highly visual platform and due to the target audience being creative and young city professionals it would be important that Cafe Flux has an online presence. The feed will include behind the scene of Cafe Flux, creative tasks and food. The Menus design will change on a bimonthly basis to continue to spark fresh new material and explore the concept of change. It would also be interesting to allow Instagram followers of Cafe Flux the creative freedom to design new menus.

Menu Experimentation

To coincide with the cafe’s name Flux and the innovation of the Bauhaus movement, it was important that I explored a variety of shapes, layers and tints to create modern prints which reflected the artists of the Bauhaus movement. I explored how the stencil-like typeface could be used in a variety of capacities to create the new front. I tried layering of lines inspired by the works of Oskar Schlemmer, circular shapes and strong bold lines. I also dismantled the typeface to create abstract shapes.

Josef Alber’s play with transparency and abstract shapes is something I also experimented with using the brand colours. The use of patterns was also explored but I felt with the strong colour palette it would benefit more from white space. It is important that a variety of designs is explored as the menu will constantly be changing. 

Brand Development

I wanted Cafe Flux to have a solid branding story, something which will help me focus on creating a coherent final project. I established three keywords which would reflect the Cafe's purpose and influence the branding materials. COFFEE, CREATE, CHAT is the outcome which I think summarises the brand's ethos. I played around with how these keywords could play a role in the design of the menus.

I began to explore what these three words would look like if they became a shape. When exploring coffee I thought about the coffee bean, cup and the colour of the liquid. I looked at simplified drawings to encapsulate the essence of Coffee. I focused on the steam which would rise from a warm, comforting cup of coffee, this then led me to explore the glyphs and I came across a line which represents this. 

The create and chat keywords I took a similar approach, their outcomes are discussed below. 

I think including portraits of key influencers of the Bauhaus movement celebrates their achievements and the background of Cafe Flux. graphically I also think these black and white photos which clearly displays a portrait is a perfect contrast to the more abstract shapes which features in the brand.

   

Poster Design

INITIAL POSTER IDEA

FINAL POSTER IDEA

Despite Cafe Flux having an online presence and a need for constant change, I feel that a collection of posters promoting and explaining the need for creativity in a city helps to create an air of curiosity to potential customers.

I see these posters as a hybrid of information and art. They are not meant to be corporations advertising posters but rather something which is placed in creative areas on outdoor building walls as a statement/piece of contemporary art. The contrast of the contemporary palette and shapes along with the formal black and white homage to famous Bauhaus influencers will offer some sense of curiosity, an exploration which could lead to a Cafe Flux visit. 

Flux Assets

The accompanying assets of the Flux brand will be important so I have begun to look at ways which would attract customers and keep them coming.  I have been looking at a number of articles based on a cafe's environment, marketing techniques and how the design all have an impact on whether a customer will return or not. It was also important to define why people enjoyed going to cafes rather than somewhere else.

One of the things that kept popping up was loyalty schemes, where a customer would get a free coffee after purchasing so many, this also led me to think about how this could potentially look and work with my already existing branding. I created a simple business card style layout featuring the main fonts and colours, I thought it would be interesting to stamp the numbers with the main shapes of the Bauhaus Movement. 

Another clever method of exposure is branded take - away coffee cups. Cafe Flux will be in a city and this will attract a lot of customers on the move, this means that my design decisions will have to be bold, attractive and intriguing to others who may see it by chance. 

Social media has to also be considered when promoting the brand assets and promotion of a new cafe. Potentially I could create an Instagram along with a hashtag along with a geo-filter on Snapchat when at the cafe to get customers to engage further and promote to others. 

Artist Inspiration & Menu Design 2

I have explored possible ways my menu could be more influenced by the Bauhaus movement and I have looked at works of Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Schlemmer, Josef Albers and Laszlo Moholy - Nagy. I really like the overlapping shapes, tints and lines, this helped me to create a range of experimental poster style menus.

I also drew inspiration on Bunsen Burger's menu design which resembles a business card and something which can be brought home and kept as a memory. I liked this idea and seeing as my Cafe's mantra is a place of escapism and somewhere which ideas and creativity can be expressed. The second concept for Cafe Flux's menu would be a fold-out leaflet style which when folded out would have an exclusive flux print which the customer can then keep to put on their wall, frame or keep as a source of inspiration. I really like the idea that these prints could be changed every so often as well to constantly keep the artwork flowing and staying true to the definition of Flux.

I think this adds a little excitement to the customer's experience in Cafe Flux as a menu is usually very formal and informative but having this design of menu contradicts this.

As the brief states that one of the main focal points is type, I have tried to incorporate this within my designs, using squares, triangles, lines and circles all common shapes associated with Bauhaus. I think also using alternating colours for each helps with its visual, modern appeal.

PAPER MOCKUP

Menu Idea 1

The menu for Cafe Flux will be a main feature in the branding, it has to be a modern reflection of the principles of Bauhaus. I began by looking at existing menu examples and how different layouts, text and form can contribute to the menus. It will be important that the menu has a style which is fluid, experimental and reflective of the movement. 

I really liked the ideas of layering the menus, along with contrasting colours and different paper sizes I think it could add interesting visual stimuli to customers. The main shapes that appear in Bauhaus art are squares, triangles and circles so I created menu shapes from squares and circles. The images below also were a source of inspiration when designing.

I came across Kathryn Jones a Wallpaper designer who had created patterns inspired by the Bauhaus movement. It was interesting to see how the movement is modernly interpreted by other creatives. Viewing it gave me further inspiration of possible shapes I could explore for my menus.

I wanted these menus to work individually by themselves but also as a collective so the colour and layout had to be carefully thought through. Each menu posses a Bauhaus quote at the bottom, the café is meant to be a place where people feel at ease and inspired by their surroundings, a quote could trigger a spark of creativity whilst enjoying a bite to eat. 

The two main fonts which feature in the logo also do on the menu to create a strong brand. However, for the body text, it needs to be something semi-neutral less decorative and easily read. I choose Arial for thee purposes along with its variety of font weights which I need for the menu. Small details like the F at the bottom representing flux and the border frames the menu giving it a little extra. 

I have also begun to explore how branding material would look on other materials like stickers and take away bags. I want to continue exploring how I can further develop these assets.  

Type Experiments

Type is really important for this project as it will be the main feature in a variety of branded material. The Bauhaus movement commonly used sans serif fonts to maintain the simplistic and legible aspects of the movement. I experimented with both serifs and sans serif as contrasts and to see what it could potentially look like.

After looking at Studio Nari's Bauhaus video using Adobe's Bauhaus insired typefaces I wanted to try to see how they would work for my logo. After some experimentation which can be seen above, I decided upon Joshmi a stencil style font inspired by shapes of the movement which will create a strong aesthetic. Reross will complement Joshmi a more simplistic font used for headers and the logo.

Some initial experiments with the logo, playing with angles layers and textures. The two logos below are the most aesthetically effective, the contrast of the rigid structured Bauhaus typefaces layered with the handwritten calligraphy adds a unique style. However, I feel that as I begin to develop the brand further it may be difficult to translate it on a number of brand assets.

The texture is also interesting but this could also pose difficutlies when developing further.