BY NIGHT
BY NIGHT
By Night Restaurant Branding Concept Design
Nhau: togetherness, and to drink without reasoning.
A Vietnamese bar/lounge inspired by Vietnamese drinking culture: “nhau”.
PROJECT SUMMARY
I wanted to create a space that felt welcoming to the new generation of Vietnamese children that were raised by immigrant families. In many ways, people of various Asian ethnicities share similar upbringings and foods. However, Vietnamese culture is special because we have a term that encompasses all the ideas of having fun and enjoying conversations whilst eating and drinking together—called: “nhau”. This one singular word can be used in various contexts, and can mean a lot without having to say much.
SKILLS
Branding & Design System
Concept Development
Print
COURSE
Graphic Design II
Tatiana Gomez-Gaggero,
MassArt 2021
I envisioned this restaurant to be open later in the evening, somewhere to unwind after work or on the weekends, perhaps a hole in the wall style bar. Personally, out of all the types of eateries that I could have created a brand for, a bar strays far from my personality. When I think about drinking, I don’t think about going to a bar or club with my friends—we just ask who is free to host at their homes. Not only is this due to my introverted nature, but it was also what I grew up with. When I think of “nhau”, I think of going to my cousins house to play as a kid whilst my mom ate with my aunts in the kitchen and my dad had beers with my uncles. I wanted the new generation of Vietnamese kids to relate to this experience, and have a place of our own to experience this same thing whilst potentially creating a space to meet new friends that enjoy the same lifestyle.
The name “By Night” was inspired by a childhood nighttime show called “Paris by Night”, where various artists perform musical variety shows. It was a show that almost every Vietnamese family had on tape, and my parents even attended a show and were caught on camera in the audience! The menu items were inspired by the various foods my dad would cook and bring to my uncles to “pick at”. A lot of the food on the menu are appetizer style foods, because I felt that since this was a restaurant for conversations to brew—I didn’t want everyone shoving their faces in soup the whole night. The color palette and typography were pulled from other parts of my childhood. The colors relate directly to Vietnamese staple ingredients, and the typography was inspired by standard Vietnamese serif fonts (but with a modern twist). Overall, I wanted this brand to feel authentic and true to what I grew up with in hopes that maybe something like this could (or already does) exist out in the world today.
