Cocoba

Chocolate is at the heart of Cocoba`s ethos and it was important that the design of their flagship café reflected that passion. Developing this concept was not without its challenges especially when faced with the multitude of restrictions placed upon our designers by Bluewater’s own design guide. These constraints were most keenly felt when designing the front façade curtain wall and signage as the guidelines stipulated no projecting signage. A major issue given the café`s location on the lower level and situated amongst big name brand retail stores and in direct competition with other more established chocolatiers and coffee shops. MGI were able to circumnavigate this issue by creating a high-level feature display that penetrated the front façade, simultaneously announcing the café`s presence without contravening the shopping centre design guide.
Internally the use of a contemporary mix of rustic woods, industrial units, strong branding and comfortable soft furnishings helped to create a warm and inviting venue that projected a strong identity that could easily be replicated in other sites across the country whilst still maintaining the appeal of an `independent` operator amongst the sea of bland corporate entities.