Brewpub

Medieval Brewpub
[PROJECT DESCRIPTION]

South Africa has a strong beer culture. Inspired by international trends, micro-breweries and brewpubs have more than doubled in the last few years. They now account for at least 1% of the market share for beer. The taste for craft beer continues to increase with many successful craft beer fairs held across the country. Three enthusiasts are passionate about craft beer and have been brewing beer from their homes for several years. They have decided to take the plunge and open a ‘brewpub’ brewing their own special artisan blends from local ingredients for distinctive and unique flavours.

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THE BRIEF
You have been tasked with designing a craft beer ‘brewpub’. The one stipulation is that some of the microbrewery and its equipment and workings need to be visible to the patrons of the pub. You are tasked to create the company’s brand and visual brand identity and ensure your design effectively reflects this. To complete the brewpubs’ identity, design the menu (including the food you suggest is served) and the labels for the beer bottles.

SPACE REQUIREMENTS
    The micro-brewery (partly visible to the public);
    A bar with beer on tap;
    A fast-food style restaurant;
    Fast food kitchen to serve restaurant;
    Ablutions according to the SANS 0400 regulations.

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Starting off with phase 1, we had to understand and create the brand purpose. The purpose consisted of analysing the position, differentiation and trust you want to create for the brand. As a country, the past two years of covid haven’t been well on our political, financial, and emotional state of our society. As I like to refer it to the Middle Age era where life was a harsh reality. Thus, my idea sparked for a medieval-styled brewpub. The theme gives a sense of hope that we as a society would get through these times together and what better way to do it like South Africans do best and that’s with beer.
Not only did Medieval philosophy inspire me but also the use of earthy ingredients to create craft beer, especially being that era, they had rich, prosperous ingredients to create ales and so forth.

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DESIGN ELEMENTS & MATERIALITY
Cathedral and Gothic Architecture is the best design style to describe medieval times. Elements mainly consisted of stone and wood. Fabrics included plush and deep-toned rugs as well as furnishing fabrics such as velvet, chenille, damask, and brocade. 
For my final design I used a lot of stone elements for the walls, ceilings, and tiles. Wood was mainly used for furniture. The medieval style was a bit harsh, Rococo design style elements were added to relieve the space from the rough materials used. This is by means of using gold and copper finishes to space, as well as highly decorative wood carvings and soft toned fabrics.
Several Persian rug elements were added instead of cushioning to yet again warm up the cold harsh feeling of the extend of stone and wood use. 

The micro-brewery is but only partly visible for the use of stained glass as an example from cathedral architectural design. If visitors wished to see more of the brewery tanks, two doorways were added for the natural flow of making their way through the space and out towards the bar. 

Although several demolition works was made, an additional space was added near the bathroom for means of disabled persons to use.

COLOUR SCHEMES
Dark, rich colours were popular such as red, gold, blue, green, and burgundy.

MENU DESIGN
Although a fast food styled restaurant was requested, a more traditional restaurant layout was taken with tables partly inside and majority of them based outside. There are several choices of seating varying from standard table height to a more higher table design and then either sitting without a table or standing for a more sociable approach.

The menu consists of food cuisines popular to the medieval times, recreated in a more modern approach to suit the users taste buds. 

BEER LABELS & LOGO
The beer labels were particularly inspired by the common folk of the medieval age. The logo is the classically known symbol to describe medieval times and that is the shield. The name, “Elixir” is a medieval concoction used to help as medicine for the il. For my theme, craft beer is the medicine to the typical South African individual.