Making the most of old spaces can be part of what makes your business unique, but this can take work. Lots of different businesses can move into previously occupied buildings and convert them into something different and unexpected: creating custom window graphics for the occasion can be an extension of the important re-branding.
A piece for Curbed recently spotlighted some creative ways that spaces have been re-imagined to create restaurants and coffee shops. This list includes locations from all over the world that take advantage of the previous nature of the property: a beached ship, for example, became Chilean eatery Espejo de Luna. Another surprising juxtaposition is a cafe in a former German military bunker.
Though no signs are seen in the photos that accompany these descriptions, custom made signs can be an effective tool in making a one of these distinct places seem more readily accessible to the public. Businesses can decide whether or not they want to play down the previous identity of their restaurant's space, or make that a selling point.
In an interview in Esquire, a restaurant designer named Adam Tihany gives a different approach for envisioning the space around a restaurant: start with the chef.
"I ask them to cook something they would serve in the place. I look at it, and then I go through the process of stepping back from that plate and asking what will do it justice," he said.
Wherever you get the idea to re-style your environs, having different materials and media at your disposal can be instrumental to creating a better environment.