Cafe Culture + Insitu shine at MID14’s The Project

Published by
Lorenzo Logi
September 1, 2014

As if a showroom brimming with beautiful product wasn't enough, Cafe Culture + Insitu's installation for The Project at Melbourne Indesign was bright, bold and engaging.

Whilst the term ‘inception’ relates to the establishment or starting point of an institution or activity, CC+I, DKO Architecture and Hot Black have found interest in the internal workings of design language and conceptual systems.

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Sophie Safrin, Design Director of Hot Black, explains that “at some point in a designer’s life, we have wondered how an idea is generated and how it somehow takes on a life of its own to form a concept. When asked to develop a concept based around the notion of inception, we felt that the initial moment of an idea is certainly a moment in time.

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“It was the strands of ideas that infiltrate or influence the original conceptual moment where we found great interest in our own design process along with our furniture partners Café Culture +Insitu. This creative journey, whilst congested at times, stops us all in breaths of clarity – where we look to either our foundations or above for the moment in which the life of design has made a mark.”

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Armed with this interpretation, the team elaborated a concept for an installation space that greets visitors to the shared showroom space and allows them to follow the journey of Cafe Culture + Insitu‘s merger and evolution.

The design is defined by 3,000 three metre strands that connected floor to ceiling in the showroom’s garage space, forming delicate partitions that funnelled visitors through a simple labyrinth as they approach destination. Each strand represented a possibility springing from the moment of inception, and where they connect to the floor they created symbols that echo the CC+I brand identity, such as the ‘+’, which represents the merger of the two brands Cafe Culture and Insitu. At each focal point a visitor was confronted by the brand’s identity, below, and items which represent stages in the brand’s evolution, above.

Cafe Culture + Insitu would like to thank Harris HMC for sponsoring the construction of the installation. 

Photography: Nicole Reed
www.nicolereed.photography

Cafe Culture + Insitu

Vote for your favourite collaboration in The Project at melbourneindesign.com.au/the-project-peoples-choice-award!

Hot Black

DKO Architecture