"The café Ihana Kahvila provides an unusual setting for coffee, refreshments and shopping inside a converted freight container at Helsinki’s newest artisanal hub, Kalasatama." (source: Helsinki Times) 

One of the summer's cafe highlights has been Ihana Kahvila (loosely translated as "The Lovely Café"), a small café and a shop ran by Ms. Sanni Jouhki. It operates in Kalasatama, which is basically a no-man's-land at the moment, filled with piles of land, old containers, graffiti fences and other urban spots. This fascinating piece of land—previously a harbor—will become a residential area for estimated 17000 people in a couple of years.

Kalasatama area from above. Ihana Café's spot is on the upper left point of that masssive pier (picture © Suomen Ilmakuva Oy).

Last spring Werklig was asked to help building some identity material for the café. Naturally we said "yes".

The task was to create something "designed" as a contrast to the rugged surroundings. It was clear that we wanted to keep the freight container element somehow present in the identity. Originally the café's (concept) name was "Konttikahvila" (Container Café) so that also lead the design to a certain direction. After vigorous thinking we managed to narrow down the visual main elements into a few.

A typical freight container.




"Sortti" bag.


The shape and surface of freight container was taken as a basis for the design. Corrugated metal surface with geometrical angles seemed to be something that really captured the "essence" of a container. Also, cafe´s seating system was to be built with Sortti cube bags (they are basically heavy duty bags for industrial use) and cubes are definately geometric, too. However, we needed to tweak the elements so the final result would be indeed lovely (Ihana), not of just a boring pile of geometric container stuff. Luckily Ms. Asli Ufacik, who had made the interior design for the cafe, had planned to use some floral wallpaper inside the container. We decided to use that idea also for the identity. Why use an existing wallpaper when you can make your own?

Original plan was to use Ritva Kronlund's wallpaper in the container walls so that was used as a starting point for Ihana Kahvila's own wallpaper. The primary design drivers (freight containers, corrugated surfaces, Sortti cubes, overall industrial feel, geometrical shapes) were combined with given floral themes and voilà: Ihana Kahvila's own unique wallpaper was born. The wallpaper has only technical, geometric and "cold" shapes and forms but the final result is very traditional, warm and even feminine. When seen from a far the wallpaper actually looks like a basic floral wallpaper. And that was something we tried to do. Easter eggs are always fun.

The colors used in the new wallpaper were an hommage to Kronlund's original design, but soon three alternative color themes were created. The cafe interior has been covered with a blue version of the wallpaper. Original color theme is used on the website and on flyers. Other two colors are used in trays and other smaller itemms in the café.




Ihana Kahvila wallpaper.




Ihana Kahvila wallpaper color variations.

Wallpapers inside the café. (picture © Ihana Kahvila and Tiina Närkki)


Usually a logo is made before any additional identity elements, but in this case the design process was totally reversed. As the wallpaper/pattern became such a dominant element we decided to do all the other identity elements based on it. Typography follows the industrial-meets-floral -theme, too. A sans-serif typeface (like in container markings) is spiced by a ornamental slab serif typeface.

Naturally a website was designed, too. Please take a look at the site and don't forget to follow Ihana Kahvila's Facebook feed. There has been a lot of articles and blog posts about the café so it may be a good idea to simply google a bit, too.

Ihana Kahvila logo.




Ihana Kahvila website. Design by Werklig, coding by Client.

 

 

Ihana Kahvila application concepts.

The opening hours seem to change according to weather conditions—check the latest info from Facebook page and go check the place out! I'd say it's worth twe walk or biking.

 

Finally, some good mood pics, all courtesy of Ihana Kahvila.




Sortti bags in action.








Good stuff!