The Challenge:

A former restaurant in Walnut Creek was being transformed into a coffee collective, and needed a logo, a decor plan, and a feature wall to capture the owner's vision.

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The Background:

Decades of existence hosting a variety of restaurants had left the space dark, dingy, and covered in an odd jumble of leftover decor from its days as a Greek and then a Mexican restaurant.

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New owner Ron Loza came to me with his passion project, a coffee shop as monument to his beloved and much-missed sister and her legendary kindness, and I signed on as a designer both of graphics and interior.

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The Process:

We opted to keep almost nothing from the building's restaurant past, except for the beautiful wood ceilings, which had been hidden above cheap, low-hanging lights and ugly decor. The ceiling was cleaned and then given simple hanging lights to open up the space.  I picked a yellow stain for the floors, which was then distressed, so that the brightness could continue throughout the space without becoming too stark. A trip to the Alameda Point Antiques Faire resulted in a connection for tables and chairs.

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I provided Ron with about ten ideas for the Kindness Wall, as we came to call it, and roughly the same number of logo mock-ups, not because he was asking for that number, but rather because I found the concept so inspiring that the ideas just kept coming.  He had offered little in the way of concrete demands for the wall, so I was free to find and include the quotes that spoke to me, and once we had decided on the final look, only a few changes to the text were made.

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The emphasis throughout the project was on creating a welcoming, clean space to encourage strangers to feel comfortable and interact with each other, from the inclusion of a daily question on the chalkboard, to boardgames and communal tables.

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This project was one I was very proud to be involved with, and I believe the final result is very much what we set out to achieve.

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