Swimming in Jell-O is the best way to describe the baby steps we make when starting a new project. Our budgets require us to be careful as we articulate each component of creating. Needless to say, we spend a lot of odd hours doing "grunt" work.
My favorite part about this time (of prepping before creating) is visualizing and planning out the finished products; very rarely will the final sketch be the final product.
When thinking about the finished product, the most important component is the "feel" our guests will have; more specifically, how it will evoke emotion. My personal goal is always for those emotions to be unique to the individual. This makes it difficult to clearly categorize and label the spaces when people ask me specific questions about it. The venue side was its own unique challenge because we wanted to bridge historical with modern. This side of the property will be a unique challenge as I want to encompass more "feels".
New doorway as a connector to the spaces
First, I want to make sure it has the existing garage feel. Immediately, what I love about the space, is how it reminds me of growing up in my father's auto body shop. That alone excites me to re-imagine and recreate this space as an addition to eMbers.
I think about other "feels" that I want to tie into it. I imagine what a small club in the late 1970's NYC would have been like. I think about the wine bar in Amsterdam where I first started sketching eMbers. I remember the calm of an indoor/outdoor bistro in LA. There are a lot of "feels" that are personal to me; the importance is tying it together to a personal connection with our friends in the community.
The mural is a great example of what we try to represent. "What kind of bird is that?" is a common question. It can't be labeled because it is purely from the imagination of the artist Cameron Moberg. Something like this forces someone to think creatively when viewing it and not being able to store it in a compartment of the mind. This is what we love to represent.
Separate elements will loosely tie into others is a subjective way. It will always be more fun for you to share with me what our place is than for me to tell you what you are supposed to feel.