The Building Blocks
It was crucial for the build-out to feel deeply connected to the fabric of our Ridgewood community and NYC as a whole.
For the exterior signage, we drew inspiration from old new york corner store as well as Jamaican sign-painting that emerged with dancehall culture in the 1970s and 1980s. This nod ties into the shop’s emphasis on music (more on that here). We developed a mock-up of the sign and worked with sign-painter Dominick Mango to bring the vision to life.
Dominick also painted the center pane on our first vintage menu sign
For the interior tiles, we partnered with ceramicist Maggie Boyd. As a huge fan of her work, we gave her free rein to create handmade tiles with her signature illustrations, adding a personal and artistic touch to the space.
We pulled inspiration from these tiles for our first house blend coffee bag.
We sought out the ARM to use their old letterpress machine to create posters designed to garner excitement in the neighborhood during the buildout.
They also risoprinted our first two coffee bags, solidying a old-school handcrafted quality to our early branding.
