Wan Mohamed Afiq
Ensemble
Overview
What is Ensemble?
Ensemble is a vegan restaurant that focuses on helping the environment and the community through supplying from local markets, smaller businesses and serving vegan food. Ensemble in French means, together or whole in English. This reflects on the concept of our restaurant as we want to represent a sense of oneness as our goal is to encourage consumers to create a better world through helping the community and bettering the environment.
There is a stigma surrounding vegan food, where the general consensus think that vegan food is just boring vegetables. Where in fact vegan food could be interesting than the typical greens we usually see served in vegetarian and vegan restaurants. Ensemble would want to create exciting vegan food where we could blur the lines between normal food and vegan food, where vegan food could be enjoyed by everyone without them thinking that they are missing something when eating vegan food. With vegan food on the rise, there are many alternative ingredients for cheese, meat and milk, thus there is no limit in creating delicious vegan food.
Veganism
In the last decade there has been a rise in global demand for plant based food. The United States has seen a 600% increase in vegans since 2014 to 2017 (Global Data, 2017), where as vegans in the UK has increased by 350% (Ipsos MORI, 2016) and 400% in Portugal (Nielsen, 2017). This rise in demand is due to the public being more aware of the major health and environmental benefits that plant based diets offer. Shifting to a plant based diet would also leave behind the ever polluting meat industry. It is estimated that 9,100 out of 17,900 deaths in the US by air pollution were due to meat, poultry and dairy production (Domingo, 2021).
Locally Sourced Ingredients
Malaysia’s food industry has grown rapidly since the emergence of supermarkets and hypermarkets, moving from farmer’s markets and independent stores. As for the consumers, 70% of them prefer shopping for fresh produce at hypermarkets (Norsida, 2008). When it comes to household items, 89% of Malaysians favour hypermarkets (Abdullah, 2011). This is reasonable as hypermarkets offer much more comfort and convenience like covered parking and air conditioning. Where does this leave traditional markets? In these times of uncertainty due to the pandemic, farmers and sellers at these local markets are concerned on how they are able to survive in this business. Sourcing locally can be sustainable for local producers and this also helps create jobs in the community (Kiilleen, n.d).
The supply chain of local markets are fairly simple compared to a large supermarket. Usually the supply chain for a local market comes from the farmer, to the transporter then to a wholesaler, or maybe sometimes the farmers them- selves sell their goods to the market. Thus this has made it very easy to trace where the produce is coming from and understand the conditions the farmers and workers work in.
In a recent investigation, it was revealed that there were multiple forms off abuse done like slavery, child abuse and allegedly even rape on workers of big and small farms that passed ethical production standards (Associated Press, 2020). It is very important for us to know that our food supply is supplied from ethical suppliers, we do not want our food to be on the expense of the slavery and child exploitation.
Location
We decided to go for Taman Tun Dr Ismail or TTDI for short, specifically in front of Jalan Datuk Sulaiman. Mainly because it is in the heart of many local amenities like TTDI Park, Kiara Hills, Glo Damansara Mall and SK TTDI just to name a few. This would be near and convenient for many potential consumers in the area.
Buying Power in TTDI
According to property guru, in from 2019 to 2020, the median price for a house in TTDI was RM1.8 million.The high prices of property in TTDI would prove that consumers in the area have a higher income which shows the high buying power they have. Based on the statistics shown, residents of TTDI have shown that they are well educated, with 78% of them graduating with a college or more advanced education. It was shown in a study that those who graduated with at least a year of tertiary education earned more than 50% than those who graduated from medium education (secondary school) (Eurostat, 2018).
TTDI is also near many corporate offices in the area like Menara KEN, First Avenue and Menara LGB. Corporate offices suggest that there are people in the area that have a higher income level. Hence justifying the higher prices we should offer. The higher prices are due to the more expensive costs to supply organic and vegan food.
Demographic & Target Audience
The majority age groups among vegans are around 30-49 years old and 18-29 years old, with the average age being 42 years old (VeganBits, 2018). Which is the general age group we are aiming for with our restaurant. With the positive environmental impact veganism has, this could be a selling point for the target audience we have chosen. This is because 75% of millennials are more likely to change their buying habits to reduce their impact on the environment and 90% of them are willing to pay more for environmentally and sustainable products (Nielsen, 2018).
A study about the motivations for a vegan/vegetarian diet, 69% of participants do it for the health benefits, which could indicate that those that are interested in veganism / vegetarianism are generally health conscious (VRG, 2018). The location we have chosen, has suggested that there would be healthy and active people around the area. This suggestion was derived from the fact that our restaurant location is in the vicinity of Anytime Fitness, Babel (a premium gym) and Kiara Hills. Having a vegan restaurant with healthy options would attract them to dine there after their activities.
Competition
Vegetarian options are very limited in TTDI, it is either they are offered in the menus for some restaurants, and if it is a vegetarian restaurant, they usually only serve local dishes. Vegan options however are non existent in this area, there are no vegan restaurants nor vegan options in the menus of the restaurants in this area. The nearest vegan restaurant is 8km away which one has to pay for toll to get there. As for competition, we are bringing a new niche market into the area, which is plant based food so there is very little competition when it comes to food. For the sake of comparison, our closest and direct competition would be Yishensu, a vegetarian shop not even in TTDI, but approximately 3km away. Yishensu offers a variety of vegetarian Asian dishes. Taking advantage of this, our restaurant offers fusion and experimental plant based food, to give vegetarians and vegans some interesting varieties in their meals.
Design
Concept Mood-board
Reference Mood-board
Restaurant Layout
Logo Design Exploration
Based on the concept of the restaurant, the logo has to evoke a sense of nature, kindness and modernism. There were many drafts and exploration of the logos, below is the first batch of logo explorations.
Here the logos were revolved around the idea of a globe symbolised as a circle with a gradient. The use of gradient as the globe represented the modern concept of veganism and our restaurant. The idea of veganism is all about saving our environment from pollution and harming animals, hence why the typography is always structured in a way that it is always surrounding the earth to depict that our restaurant is guarding the earth from harm. These logos are modern, but it is lacking some sort of kindness and warmth that would make this restaurant approachable. These logos look too cold and almost intellectual to be a restaurant logo, instead it looks like it could be used for a tech company.
For this batch of logos, they were mostly inspired by graphic design from the mid century. Mostly designers that were a part of or inspired by the International Style/ Swiss Style of graphic design.
Logos from 1-3 revolved around the use of the shapes of fruits, and experimenting on how they overlap with each other. These logos were inspired by the that used still life of fruits as their logos and for our restaurant there would be a modern rendition to it.
Logo 4 is based on the glass panels, in the waiting area of the restaurant. This logo was just exploration for the sake of it. It does not symbolise the concept of the restaurant or the values of vegan food. Similar to logo 5, which is supposed to be a leaf, to depict nature.
For logo 6, the logo wants to represent the oneness of the earth’s environment, sort of like a Yin and Yang, but using the Yin and Yang logo would hold too much of its Chinese history and heritage that it would stray away from the main concept of our restaurant. Thus, the logo was created to symbolise the same meaning where elements in our environment would overlap and influence an outcome that would make the earth what it is.
Final Chosen Logo
The final logo still follows the same design style as before. The logo is supposed to represent a cross section of a fruit where every fruit has a core where the centre is where it separates the flesh. The different colours show the variety of colours fruits have.
Restaurant Design
Facade
As the facade is the first impression one would have for Ensemble, it has to make a unique and striking impression on passerbys when they see the restaurant. By combining the inspiration with elements from the restaurant’s logo, the facade will be a perforated wall that will get to have its own unique look.
The rationale behind having a perforated wall is that it provides sufficient natural light into the restaurant rather than not having a window at the storefront. Furthermore, instead of an exposed window, the restaurant can have seats by the window without customers feeling uncomfortable seeing outsiders walking pass and look into the restaurant.
Entrance
The entrance of the restaurant is a hallway with seating mainly used for customers that are taking away and delivery drivers to wait for their orders. The television is used to announce their order. The seats also serve as a partition to segment the waiting area and the dining area, to avoid any awkwardness between diners and those who are having their food to go. Therefore the seats are placed facing away from the dining area.
As seen on the moodboard, the overall interior design of the restaurant is inspired by midcentury modern architecture, especially with how Le Corbusier use colour. Hence the coloured glass panels on the partition. The use of teak was very prominent in midcentury modernism, thus we have adapted the use of it for the restaurant’s furniture.
Bar
The bar of the restaurant serves as a place for customers who either come alone, or those who are there for a quick lunch. The restaurant does not have a cashier for customers to walk up to pay, instead they would have to ask for the bill from the cashier. This is due to saving counter space for the display fridge and sufficient space for the pickup area.
For the cabinets, the doors have adapted the elements from the partition to create cohesion and consistency in the interior design.
The design of the stool is sleek and to fit the overall design of the restaurant. Its small profile would conserve space for the bar, for more diners to eat at the bar. The round shape and edges of the lamp would compliment the bar stool for the bar. The pendant lamp was straight forward when it comes to modelling due to its simplistic shape. To ensure that the overall design of the restaurant is coherent, the lamp features a wooden base.
Packaging
The restaurant has very strong vision to be a part of an effort to better the environment. Apart from, sourcing locally and serving vegan food, the packaging of the restaurant should also reflect on the vision of the restaurant.
The restaurant would feature 3 types of packaging for food. A burger box, lunch box for pastas and appetisers, and a pizza box. For drinks there would be a generic cup. To carry food, the restaurant would provide a paper bag. All of the packaging would be made out of 100% recycled items, that are biodegradable to ensure that the packaging would not contribute to the increase in waste in our environment.
The packaging offers an opportunity to use the surface to express the restaurant’s values and vision. Rather than sticking a logo on the packaging, the packaging provides a medium for the restaurant to advocate for veganism. Furthermore, encouraging and praising customers for their efforts in helping the environment would make them feel good about themselves. Consequently, make them feel like they could help the environment by dining at the restaurant.
