Today we had another workshop on building our skills with conceptualisation. We initially got into groups of 5, and were given three words to choose from. I worked with Hannah, Thomas, Eve and Steph Buck and our three words were 'Ball', 'Curtain' and 'Court'. We finally decided on 'Curtain' and began brainstorming words relating to 'Curtain'. We then found out that we had to take this word forward and create a concept for a bar.
Initial Brainstorming
Curtain / Rouge / Red Rope / Classic / Open Late / After Theatre Shows / Voyeur / Naming cocktails after famous icons / Dusk / Black / Ebony / Violet / Bleu / Blue Violet / Moody / Smokey Maroon / Deep / Celestial / High Fashion / Drape / Epilogue / Prologue / Old French / Courtine / Blinds / VIP / Exclusive / Dark / Reveal / Closure / Secretive / Encore / Midnight / Twilight / Eclipse / Glamour / Elegant / Mystery / Chandelier
Once we completed our initial brainstorming we began to put together the basic details for our concept...
Name: Voyeur
Where: West End, London
Type: Cocktail Bar
USP: Old french, Art Deco, 1920's France, Chicago, Jazz music
Audience: Middle - Upper Class, Interest in Cocktails
From here we moved on to create lists of products that would appear in the bar, that would need branding;
Product Types
Drinks Menu, Glasses, Cigarettes/Cigars, Ash Trays, Coasters, Cocktails, Toilets, Shot Glasses, Signage, Receipts, Hand Towels, Napkins, Uniforms, Gloves, Tickets, Flyers, Snacks
From here we categorised our research and idea's into different sections, before putting together our presentation.
Categorising
Voyeur: It's a french word, from the 1920's era. Suggestion of exclusivity, privacy and secrecy. Watching the theatre, reflect watching and voyeurism. Classic, 1920's france, paris. Seeing something different. Curtained off. Dark, Mysterious, Classic. Blue and Purple. Looking into the 1920's. Jazz. Adaptable drinks to different audiences.
Drink Names: Blue Velvet, The Salvador, OCD French, Midnight Blue, The Rouge, Blackout
Products: Drinks menu, Script / Bookmark. Different Shaped glasses, individual, fashion statement.
Narrator: Doorman. Sets the scene. Introduction. Introduce the drinks "Characters". Prologue, enter. Epilogue, leave. End of performance. Characters, specialist drinks, "Bringing down the curtain"
Atmosphere: Dark, Moody, Midnight, Mysterious, Smokey, High Fashion, Glamorous, Jazz music, Piano, Chandellier, Classic
Functioning of the bar: like a play or performance, greeting included at the door, narrative setting etc. Introductions start every 20 minutes. People dancing behind curtains, staffed dressed in 1920's attire, glove with logo, Screens/Curtains to separate sections of the bar.
Presentation Pitch
Our name is Voyeur, this suggests an exclusive, private and secretive experience. It originates from the idea of watching plays and the west end, and also our initial term 'curtain'. Curtains and large strips of blue velvet will be used throughout the interior decor to emphasise our concept across the entire bar.
Our bar will be located in the heart of London's West End, and will be aimed at middle to upper class people, who visit the theatre to watch musicals and plays in and around the area. Our audience is not limited, however our primary target is quite specific because of the concept & unique selling point.
Our Parisian, 1920's themed cocktail bar also known as the 'golden age twenties' in Europe. Embodies luxury, night time glamour including live entertainment and music. West end bar, linked with the theatre and the concept that the themes within the bar alter due to the theatre productions.
Our bar is a cocktail bar which serves modern drinks but the concept is used to develop the names of the cocktails; for example, The Salvador, named after Salvador Dali, Blue Velvet, named after the decor of the bar. The functioning of the bar also directly relates to the concept, as the staff will be dressed in 1920's attire, which is also branded with our logo. Screen will also be placed in the bar, to divide seating area's and reflect the concept of voyeurism. The bar will also be separated into different area's with names taken from the 1920's era, such as The Courtine (main bar), Matinee (VIP area) and finally 'Boudoire' for the toilets.
We came up with the idea in keeping with the play theme that people would enter every 20 minutes with a drink at the door and introduced to the menu as if they were characters in a script. The doorman would be the narrator and set the scene with a short introduction. He would take them through to the different area's such as the Courtine and the Matinee and seat them down. The narrator would introduce them with a prologue to reflect the same structure as a play and leave them with an epilogue at the end to finish and complete the 'experience'. He would use phrases such as "Bring down the curtain" at the end to call a round for final orders. The atmosphere would be dark with blue lighting reflecting midnight, mystery and the scene in the 1920's era. It would have a glamorous and classy interior, with chandeliers, and an in house musician playing jazz.
Feedback
The feedback from our presentation was really positive and the presentation was well timed at around 3 minutes. All together we had 2 hours for the entire concept pitch to be created and therefore there is plenty of room for our initial concept to be further pushed and developed.
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