Berlin at a glance.

Having chosen the collage/layered style for my design I decided to look at popular Berlin landmarks, events or products as well as certain figures that I had already found when looking at Berlin's history. Here are a selection of some of the things that I would associate with the past and present Berlin...

              

I will look to edit these images in a way that will suit my selected style, and then start to apply them to my collage style mural design. I think these images are instantly associated to Berlin for different reasons,  for historic reasons or even for being popular tourist attractions. 

Textures.

Although I am not yet at a stage where I need to apply textures and styles to my designs, I wanted to gather images and textures that I think would suit my Berlin mural design. From the crumbling and cracking brick of the Berlin wall to the splatters of graffiti art spray painted across the city. Here are some examples that I found...

On my recent trip to Germany I also took some of my own pictures...

I think the fact that these are taken from the very streets of Germany, and others from the wall that still stands in Berlin, is enough to say that this is the right style to apply to my design. I will look to use them at a later stage.

What style to choose??

When I started my research into design & illustration styles I had a vague idea of where I wanted to go with my mural, but kept an open mind. I felt from the start that such things as bright vector designs would suit the likes of Japan more than Berlin, and the artistic fluent sketch styles would look more at home in France or Italy. So despite really liking the styles of Rubens Lp, Pomme Chan, Glauco Diogenes etc I knew they just wouldn't be right for my chosen project. It was the industrial, dark, grunge feel I had in mind, capturing the old berlin with the vibrant new, but I just didn't how to go about creating that.

I came across a Columbian designer/illustrator called Javier Piraguata, and as these examples show above, he uses photography, typography and illustration all together to create a really unique collage style design. The way he layers and positions the images is superb, creating amazing shapes and a powerful end result. He blends colour with black & white, the old with the new and type with imagery in a way that makes so many different elements gel effortlessly into one design.

These are techniques Javier's work that I would love to implement into my own mural design. The colours and typography used here I don't think would work too well, but the way he makes the element work together and the overall feel of his designs are something that I would definitely look to recreate.

Another designer that I have a lot of appreciation for and that I have previously looked at is Josef Muller Brockmann. He was a swiss graphic designer, who's style is far from what I was originally looking for, but it is the way he uses imagery that attracted me to him. The proportions are different, angles obscure and they run off the edge of the page giving the effect that they are really filling the whole design. This shows the importance of the images he chooses and also that the positioning and sizing of images is key to creating a good design.

One more designer who's style caught my attention was Devante Chang. He is a designer from Portland, USA who now lives in Seoul, Korea and he specialises in illustration, print and web design. It was his collage style designs I really like though and they hold aspects of exactly what I was looking for. The layers of textures, imagery, typography and colour, in a similar way to Javier Piraguata , seamlessly blend together and yet always keep the eye busy. I love how you could look at the design again and again and always see something new.

All of these different artists and styles have influences my thought process and how I will go about designing my mural immensely, and have fulfilled exactly what I was looking for before I started my research.

German Cuisine.

When it comes to food, germany simply cannot get enough of it. I went to Germany last weekend and stayed in Dusseldorf, and it was evident that they had a bit of everything on offer. During my stay I sampled greek, turkish and indian foods, and there were many more on offer such as italian, chinese and american, but what I really wanted was to get a taste of what the Germans call tradition. Before I went all I knew was that they liked meat and beer, and I wasn't wrong, but there is far more to the German cuisine than this and I also wanted to see if there was a market for yo!sushi in such a culture.

It soon became apparent that a big part of german cuisine was 'street food' such as bratwurst (hotdogs) and large pretzels. And I realised that it wasn't just because they meat and bread, but because they were quick, cheap and tasty.

One place where this food is very popular is in train stations. The vibe in Germany seems to be that everybody needs to be somewhere in a hurry, and this is most noticeable in stations where there are many different shops and venders and where it is not unusual to see a smartly dressed business man perched outside a cafe/restaurant quickly devouring a sandwich. 

This whole idea of needing something quick, cheap and tasty fits right into Yo!Sushi's ethos, and the Germans aren't any different to the rest of us when it comes to looking out for that healthier option, or at least knowing we should, so I thoroughly believe that Berlin, Germany would be the perfect location for a yo!sushi branch.

Berlin's History.

I wanted to look into Berlin's history and find some iconic moments or people that I could include in my mural. I was conscious of being lured in by the the history of the war, but that is something that for once I don't think is necessary to include in my design, nobody wants Hitler watching them eat their sushi. So instead I looked at celebrities from Berlin and historic moments in History that took place there.

One person that came out of many searches and from asking a number of people was Marlene Dietrich. She was a German-American singer, actress and performer who was born in Berlin in 1901. She continually reinvented herself throughout her long career, and went on to conquer hollywood, being named in 1999 as 'the 9th greatest film star of all time'. With her glamour, fame and strong Berlin roots and think she would be ideal to include in my mural for some history.

Another iconic moment and picture in Berlin's history included the then president of USA, John F Kennedy. During his 1963 speech in West Berlin to underline the the United States support shortly after the Berlin wall had been erected, he exclaimed "Ich bin ein Berliner!" to symbolise he was on the their side, however a small grammatical error in an unforgiving language meant he actually told the world "I am a jam donut!". So this picture became iconic for two very different reasons.

And possibly one of the most important moments in Berlin and even Germany's history was the Berlin wall, and more notably it's fall in 1989. This wall was built in 1961 by the government in East Germany, and completely separated the east from the west. It was initially stated that the wall was built to protect the East Berlin population from the 'fascist west' implying that they still hadn't all been 'de-nazified', but in truth it simply stopped all german emigration. The west Berlin government labelled it the wall of shame and there were many riots from the west to bring it down. 

Today, some of the wall still stands as a remembrance of the past, and sections have even been made into public galleries displaying art and graffiti. The Berlin wall is a must for my mural, but not only to use the imagery, but to capture the whole 'grungey' feel of it and to capture this throughout my design.

The Trend City.

It didn't take long for me to realise that I couldn't have chosen a better city to rebrand YO! Sushi in. Any preconceptions that I had of Berlin have well and truly been blown away, because whether it's fashion, design, contemporary art, or the clubbing and multi-media scenes...Berlin definitely has it's finger on the pulse of the times and represents the 'state of the art' in every way, even New York scene scouts pay visits to the German capital.

Berlin techno club culture was born with the fall of the wall. Empty cellars became crammed full of teenagers from both the East and the West and they were united by a love for strobe lights and electronic rhythms. And now more than 20 years later Berlin has become the world capital of club culture.

In 2005 Berlin was appointed the new UNESCO 'City of Design', they stated, "Berlin has demonstrated remarkable social, economic and cultural achievements in the field of design."

The buzz that has been created around Berlin's design culture has lead to major design agencies such as Pentagram moving their european offices there to be in the centre of it all.

The varied cultures of Berlin has lead to many different design styles, and one of the most recognised in Berlin today is graffiti art, most notably on the remains of the Berlin wall. The Berlin Wall East Side Gallery is a long section of the wall where over 100 paintings by artists from all around the world cover this memorial for freedom and make it the largest open air gallery in the world. 

BERLIN

Having been to Germany on a number of occasions before, I already have quite a soft spot for the country with their laid back lifestyle and unrivalled hospitality, but one place I am yet to visit is the countries capital. Berlin boasts 3.4 million inhabitants and is europe's third most visited capital, but although I am aware of some of the cities more colourful history, most notably the war and the wall, there isn't much more that i could tell you about the modern day Berlin that so many people seem to love and flock to each year. So it is only right that I research and find out as much as possible before I start to even think about my designs.

Before I get carried away...a little bit about Yo! Sushi!

Seen as it is my mission to re-brand this company and a chosen city (...Berlin) I thought it was only right to gain an insight into what they're all about and the general ethos of the company. 

YO! Sushi is (surprisingly) a sushi restaurant chain that was set up in the UK in 1997. They have been growing in popularity since day one as they offer a unique, quality and affordable alternative to your everyday dining experience. Something that they pride themselves on is getting fresh and tasty food to the customer in an efficient manner, and to achieve this target they cook and prepare all of the dishes on show at each restaurant. 

However what they are most famous for is their use of the japanese style conveyor belt, known as the 'kaiten' concept, to deliver food to the masses. This enables the customer to pick and chose what ever they like as it passes by, and gives you an element of freedom that you don't often have. By incorporating this traditional method into a funky upbeat restaurant atmosphere, YO! Sushi created a totally unique dining concept, and soon become the leader of the UK sushi market.

So where next for the YO! Sushi brand? They now have over 50 restaurants throughout the country with their international market including outlets in Moscow, Dubai and Kuwait, but their main aim is to open restaurants in all major major cities throughout the world, and they've got nothing standing in their way. 


With a new CEO deeming that YO! Sushi needs to evolve and to change, they have decided that "no two restaurants should be the same." They want to take a radical step in terms of branding and make every restaurant unique with the design and styling reflecting each particular location, with the kitchen and serving concept being the only thing that stays the same throughout. So this is where I come in and I will now start my journey towards rebranding YO! Sushi in Berlin!

Ich bin Berliner!

After a lot of thought and changes of the mind, I have settled on Berlin as my city of choice for the Yo! Sushi branding brief. I researched a couple of other cities including New York and London, but it was its immense history and its vibrant culture that led to me to choosing Berlin. I am going to research art & design movements of Berlin and Germany, past and present, as well as contemporary styles such as vector and illustration and try work towards an effect design style.