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    Sarah Coleman puts a psychedelic twist on the brand's logo at the Fendi Caffe

    Artist Sarah Coleman has added a psychedelic twist to Fendi’s distinctive double-F logo for a pop-up cafe she designed for the brand in the Miami Design District.

    Stylised as the Fendi Caffe, the cafe designed for the Italian fashion house was located on the outdoor corridor of OTL restaurant in the heart of Miami’s Design District from May to early July.

    Coleman manipulated the traditional Fendi logoThe cafe was informed by the brand’s Summer Vertigo capsule collection, which New York artist Sarah Coleman designed in collaboration with Fendi’s creative director Silvia Venturini Fendi.
    Defined by yellow and blue tones, the ready-to-wear collection features 90s streetwear references as well as shapes borrowed from 70s psychedelia.
    The entrance to the cafe was on an outdoor corridorCentral to the cafe’s bold design was FF Vertigo, Fendi’s iconic FF logo that Coleman and Venturini Fendi warped for the capsule collection and repeated throughout the cafe in a series of bold colours.
    The artist explained the influences that prompted her to explore the 70s in her design process.

    Ménard Dworkind creates retro coffee bar in downtown Montreal

    “When I first began brainstorming, I went straight to my bookshelf and dove into everything I have about the 1970s, a period of spontaneity and extreme self-expression,” Coleman told Dezeen.
    “I think the 70s are the greatest fashion era of the 20th century. The spirit of disco, the flowing post-psychedelic art,” she added. “There were so many inspiring aesthetic references to draw upon.”
    FF Vertigo was repeated throughout the spaceVisitors to the cafe were greeted with an expanse of bright yellow canopy that contrasted with green potted plants lining the permanent Fendi boutique that is located opposite the pop-up’s site.
    FF Vertigo featured as a bold motif throughout, topping the space’s various tables and barstools while more abstract swirly shapes tumbled over the cafe’s yellow walls.
    A permanent Fendi boutique is opposite where the pop-up wasOrb-style pendant lights and menus also included FF Vertigo in their design, while a more traditional version of the Fendi logo featured on the cafe’s edible items such as cappuccinos and toast.
    Fendi is a luxury fashion house founded in 1925 by Adele and Edoardo Fendi.
    Other previous projects by the brand that are informed by the past include a travelling installation for an edition of Design Miami featuring pastel 50s furniture.
    The images are courtesy of Fendi.

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    Ménard Dworkind creates retro coffee bar in downtown Montreal

    Canadian studio Ménard Dworkind has unveiled a retro-themed coffee bar featuring Rubik’s Cube mirrors and a floor tiled to look like checkerboard Vans shoes.Situated in downtown Montreal, Caffettiera Caffé Bar features a monolithic black terrazzo bar that welcomes people into the open space.

    Visitors are greeted with the terrazzo bar upon entering the cafe
    Combining refreshments and a retail display, this main bar emphasises Caffettiera Caffé Bar’s social focus and curves down to meet the checkerboard mosaic floor.
    “The checkered floor was inspired by Vans checkered shoes,” Ménard Dworkind co-founder David Dworkind told Dezeen. “As Guillaume Ménard and I both grew up in the 90s we tapped into our own personal nostalgia.”

    The checkerboard mosaic floor is influenced by Vans shoes

    The cafe’s owner wanted to bring Italian coffee culture for Caffettiera Caffé Bar, where customers are encouraged to linger over a cup.
    “We placed a footrest at the coffee bar so clients can stand there and have a chat with the barista,” said Dworkind.
    “We included a long, standing bar in the middle of the space to increase the density of people with spots in the cafe, which helps to encourage socialising”.

    A standing bar encourages socialising
    Curved mirrors are mounted onto faux-wood plastic laminate panels, a retro material that aims to connect customers through a sense of nostalgia.
    “The 90s theme was the driving force for the colour palette”, explained Dworkind. “The use of plastic laminate fake wood panels on the wall and bright colours were all popular in the 90s. The Rubik’s Cubes to frame the mirrors in the bathrooms is another example of something from our personal memories of the 90s”.

    Rubik’s Cube mirrors feature in the cafe’s bathrooms
    Circular tables boast a variation of five coloured laminates in graphic shapes and framed photographs of iconic fashion models from the decade embellish the walls.
    Tables sit alongside two comfortable tan leather banquettes that face the main bar, making use of the small but open space to create a sociable atmosphere.

    90s nostalgia is emphasised by photographs from the decade
    All of Caffettiera Caffé Bar’s available space offers a chance for customer interaction. The banquettes intersect at a self-service station, behind which a backlit planter is enhanced by the mirrors’ reflection.
    “The long shared banquettes provide the option of sticking the round tables together, and since it’s linear people are actually all seated together”, explained Dworkind.

    Reupholstered vintage chairs match tan leather banquettes in the seating area

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    Curving furniture echoes the shape of the mirrors. Rounded vintage chairs sourced from classified ads have been reupholstered in the same tan leather as the banquettes.
    Continuing the cafe’s curving lines, the ceiling’s exaggerated cornicing is another retro visual element. As with the main bar and the checkerboard floor, the cornicing seamlessly blends the walls and the ceiling together.

    Dynamic blue cornicing brings the ceiling to life
    Lambert & Fils pendant lights are suspended from yellow telephone wire above the seating area, bathing the tables in a warm glow.
    Traditional Italian food products are displayed on a long shelf behind the main bar, where a selection of sandwiches and pastries are served. Cafe merchandise is also for sale.

    The products stocked on the large shelf behind the main bar
    Italian signs illustrating where to pay and order slide along an orange painted steel beam above the bar. Their locations can be rearranged by staff depending on each day’s flow of customers.
    Various 90s books, toys and stickers feature in Caffettiera Caffé Bar’s windows, and around the space, making it a wholly nostalgic experience.
    A similarly retro feel can be found at Baseball, a food court in Hong Kong designed by studio Linehouse, influenced by 70s films.
    Co-founded by Ménard and Dworkind in 2017, previous projects from the Montreal-based studio include a kitsch Chinatown-themed pan-Asian restaurant and a recreation of a 1970s New York pizza parlour.
    Photography is by David Dworkind and Alison Slattery.

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