Becco Wine Bar

Becco is a contemporary and eclectic bar, serving natural wine with music and cultural program in a backyard at Tullinløkka in Oslo. It’s a project out of the ordinary, initiated by Flott Gjort, and curated down to each detail, from the natural wine selection, to custom designed furniture, colours, interiors, doorknobs and monthly live music programs by artist Are Mokkelbost, photographer and natural wine aficionado Anne Valeur, and music producer Erlend Mokkelbost. We were asked to develop the visual identity, menus, music program, a social media system and signage. With inspiration from peasant furniture, the practice of re-purposing materials, a genuine pleasure for decorations, "accessible nerdiness" and subtle Italianism, Becco delivers a distinct vernacular aesthetic mixing familiar charm with a progressive and energizing atmosphere, which several local artists have been invited to contribute to. Located in a stable from the mid 19th Century, the intention was to create a contemporary and eclectic platform that would allow us to communicate everything from live concerts, dj-sets and dinner parties borrowing influences and folkloristic styles. Becco, which in Italian means beak, creates associations with pouring and drinking. Several bird-shaped Jugs were collected from the beginning to decorate the bar, so a bird-shaped jug mark became the thing to do. In the spirit of re-purposing, we also developed a series of illustrations to be used across different applications, created only with elements and letters from the typography. Layup is a script font, not yet released, by Heavyweight Foundry. It combines hand written scripted qualities with mechanical aspects. Layup is elementary and honest in the way it's constructed by a limited amount of archaic shapes. It's composed by monolinear strokes revealing the parts each letter is made of, adding a fresh and spontaneous touch, and the pronounced slanted features pay homage to Italian scripted signs. It’s corny and familiar at the same time with a strong personality. Using letters from the font as a starting point, we created several custom illustrations, connecting the typography to the iconography for Becco. The colors are inspired by the playful interiors and five different Colorplan color papers (GF Smith) where selected for the printed material to create a distinctive Becco palette. While the Menus are printed in-house with black ink on Bright white and yellow paper, the Programs are printed every month on rotation on Sorbet Yellow, Candy Pink and Cool Grey with their matching color. Digitally, the color palette is growing adding also the inverted combinations for the single events while the monthly program is also released as a story format. The strip format of the program is the result of optimising both the layout to work seemengly on print and social media and fitting 3 programs on each A3 paper format. The snack Menu also feature a wavy cut (made with special scissor) to echo the bar wavy edge. We also created micro-identities for different activities at Becco that needed their own look to be recognisable but feel part of the identity. Hele Sider is a weekly event with a black and white layout inspired by LP labels with a hole in the middle. For this and the Playlist cover we use photos while the monthly programs and Supper Club menus, use images in halftone to ensure a common image quality and look for everyone performing at Becco. Becco Supper Club is one of the latest additions, where food interested people (mostly amateur cooks) are hosting a dinner for one night only in the loft. Supper Club have its own illustration with an hand holding a plate, the micro-identity allows to create a personalised logo and menu for each cook, while the Supper Club identity stays the same, allowing for the creation of quality applications like aprons, t-shirts etc that can be used more times. The platform is still growing and will include hand-stiched curtains, coaster, pop-up restaurants, radio and more.