Choi Dining Bupyeong

"Colorful yet orderly, dense yet at ease."

Choi Dining is an American Japanese diner, a brand that brings a hybrid identity of American and Japanese food to Korea. It already had several locations and an in-house branding team, so its graphic branding was more or less in place. Its spatial branding, however, had not been defined. That made the work harder than if there had been no standard at all.

American Japanese is a genre that barely exists in Korea, so we started by defining the genre. The motif came from the Japanese kissaten. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, Japan saw a flourishing dining and cafe culture shaped by American influence, centered on Western-style cooking. We borrowed American colors and motifs and reinterpreted them with the compact, solid density particular to Japan.

A franchise needs photo spots. So we brought the backlit flex signs that were once common not only outside but inside as well, so that wherever a photo is taken, at least one logo lands in the frame. This grammar is essential for a franchise.

Boutique franchise work is always a fight with the budget. The key is how effectively and how strongly the brand’s color can be shown within a limited budget, in a design that also lifts sales. Franchises want the maximum number of seats, so the floor plan has to be extremely efficient as well.

We laid out the seats so densely that not one more could fit. At the same time, the design was worked out carefully so the space would still look relaxed.

Seongsu holds 52 seats in 132 square meters, and Bupyeong holds 40 seats in 90 square meters. We set the spacing so serving would flow without trouble, but Bupyeong was simply small in scale. So we built it around small tables for two and a small bar table, and approached it through more Japanese detail. Bupyeong takes its motif from Okinawa, the part of Japan most influenced by America. The floor is finished in a pale mint epoxy that recalls the sea. It is a floor color few people have seen before, but it does not stand out, and it quietly holds the space together. The chairs were inspired by old school chairs. We used a deep mint so they would sit well with the floor while bringing out the form of their lines. As in Seongsu, we brought sign elements inside and added framed graphics for small, charming details.

In the end, two spaces emerged that feel like somewhere you have seen before, yet like nowhere you have ever been. Colorful yet orderly, dense yet at ease. It was a design that tested how far a franchise can be branded.

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