Daramjwi Bunsik
- LOCATION
- Yeoksam-dong, Seoul
- SCALE
- 33
- PURPOSE
- F&B
- SERVICES
- Space Design, Construction
- BUDGET RANGE
- 40000000
- YEAR
- 2023
Our first commercial design work was building a franchise called Namdo Bunsik, so the Korean snack bar was a category we knew well. The bunsik market is so cheap and so universal that competition is fierce. When a request came in for a small independent snack bar, that is why we felt branding had to carry weight, regardless of size.
In a low-price business aimed at a broad public, it matters to leave a strong impression without dividing opinion. It has a lot in common with character IP businesses like Hello Kitty or Pikachu. So we chose the squirrel as the character, an animal some people love and nobody dislikes. The space was small, too, so the concept of a squirrel’s burrow seemed a natural fit.
A character sells better when it is a little cheeky. Rather than a highly polished drawing, we went for a design that is playful and catches the eye, something like Dooly. We imagined the space as the home of a squirrel, a place to eat snacks the way a squirrel cracks acorns. Wood with rounded curves, a herringbone floor, and a combination of low-saturation brown and ivory: we worked hard to make it cute without being childish.
Bringing people back and building regulars is the owner’s job, but getting them through the door the first time is the designer’s job. We set out to make a space that people walking by could not forget, so they would come in at least once. There was a line from opening day. That was the result we intended.