Gramercy Bagels by Hee Ra Kim Comprehensive

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CLIENT

A small bagel shop in the Gramer­cy neigh­bor­hood in New York, NY. This shop is famous for their soft bagels—they also sell sand­wich­es, pas­tries, cook­ies, etc. There­fore, chil­dren and old peo­ple are fre­quent clients.

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BRIEF

I picked one of the loca­tions on 3rd Avenue between 23rd Street and 14th Street in New York and I redesigned the entire business.

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APPROACH

First, deter­mine the prob­lems of its cur­rent brand­ing. Vis­it place, take pic­tures, and research the his­to­ry. What do they sell? What’s their sto­ry? Who are their com­peti­tors? And cre­ate a mood board of what I think it should feel like: col­ors, type­faces, and mate­ri­als. Think about who the audi­ence will be. Choose my favorite logo sketch­es and test them on how they would extend to oth­er sur­faces. Make refine­ments on a cou­ple of cho­sen logos and start apply­ing it across the sys­tem. Refine design, and flush out the entire sys­tem. Because the tar­get audi­ence is chil­dren, I redesign it with their per­spec­tive in mind.

You could order a million different combinations of bagels at a bagel shop (e.g. sesame bagel with cream cheese, a plain bagel toasted with tomato, an everything bagel with… and so on). Bagels and their toppings are as diverse as people. Hee Ra successfully expressed this in her designs, by literally dressing up the iconic shape of a bagel with hats, facial hair, and glasses. A design that makes total sense, and is a lot of fun. — Julia Hoffmann, Professor at School of Visual Arts