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Estepona is a Spanish resort city on the Costa del Sol. It surveys the azure waves of the Mediterranean from the apex of a bight that traces a delicate South-Westerly arc from Marbella to Gibraltar. Strewn as it’s on this notoriously idyllic shoreline, Estepona largely conforms to the stereotypically cheerful allure of the Spanish resort city, pandering to the predictable pleasures most well-liked by the British overseas: golden sand, a scenic beachfront promenade, and blithely tautological Spanglish nomenclature (‘Playa Seaside’).
The restaurant scene that’s clustered alongside this promenade and across the harbour largely strives to fulfill, quite than to subvert, these expectations: wood barrel tables and different such faux-rustic flim-flam are the uniform de rigueur for numerous facades promising freshly caught native seafood, unctuous with the ever present flavours of the Mediterranean.
Nevertheless, amongst the harbourside homogeneity of Spanish restaurant tradition simplified and hyperbolised for the incurious thoughts of the informal vacationer stands a singular anomaly. Towards the tame backdrop of white tablecloths, nautical motifs and beer-branded patio parasols, stands a conspicuously stylish apparition, aflame in blood-red neon.
This scandalously horny entity is Knahia, a hybrid sushi-restaurant-dance-club that guarantees a haven of excellent style for the locals of Estepona (and maybe its extra subtle guests). You’d be maybe forgiven if that incongruous hyphenate briefly conjured a queasy imaginative and prescient of sun-dazzled and sashimi-smeared ravers bellowing at every over pounding music in an environment faintly perfumed with fishy breath. Fortunately, Knahia seems to be a considerably suaver affair, courtesy of a scintillating model id by Requena Workplace that could be a seductive mix of serene Japanese minimalism and full-blooded Spanish vivacity. Within the Barcelona-based design studio’s disarmingly simple copywriting, Knahia is solely a ‘good meals nightclub’. Once you hear it put like that, you query why you’d dance anyplace else.
On the coronary heart of this seductive visible id is the conceptual fusion of Japanese and Spanish influences. The amalgamation of East and West is an concept considerably stripped of its grand ambition by sheer power of repetition, but Requena’s id for Knahia handle to tug off a contemporary tackle this no-long-quite-as-radical-as-it-thinks idea by focusing solely on a brilliantly easy typographic vocabulary.
This model is all about one factor: a customized typeface ‘KnahiaByRequena’ composed of sticks and circles, managing to multifariously evoke chopsticks closing on sushi rolls, olives dropped into martini glasses, the linear and curved strokes of the Japanese Hiragana syllabary writing system, and but additionally nods to a distinctively Mediterranean Euro-Deco modernism. It is a gigantic triumph to so comprehensively seize each vital aspect of a hybrid id so effectively, in actually nothing greater than an association of strains and circles. The lettering might look much like numerous different geometrically abstracted ornamental typefaces, however I’ll wager that only a few, if any, of these doppelgangers are as fully purposeful and intentional as KnahiaByRequena.
The customized typeface is used for brief, punchy headings throughout print, web site and social media. The logotype additionally makes use of it, with no extra gildings apart from a charismatically springy, squishy animation by Ester Dus—a remedy that notably brings out the reference to chopsticks. This can be a good addition to the id, and provides an enthralling sprint of levity to the in any other case stark red-and-black minimalism, however actually, the typeface is evocative sufficient by itself to conjure the affiliation even when static.
Rounding out the typographic strategy is secondary typeface ‘Stanley’, a sturdy serif by Ludovic Balland. Its compact proportions, angular, hybrid wedged-bracketed serifs and common air of bullish practicality prevents issues sliding too far into that aforementioned slick Euro-Deco vibe.
The pairing of black and blood-red often is the oldest trick within the ebook for proclaiming ‘Intercourse! Thrills! Hazard!’, but, astonishingly, someway, it really works right here. Maybe solely a Malagan nightclub that impishly guarantees ‘good sushi, dangerous individuals’ might efficiently aspire to this brazen assertion in 2024, tapping the identical deep, primordial present of drama, violence and eroticism because the matador’s satin traje de luces. The success of this outrageously easy ‘palette’ may also be attributed to the actual consideration that has been paid to tactile finishes all through the visible id. Right here, the model is permitted sure managed luxuries. Deep embossing and gold foiling adorns printed collateral equivalent to enterprise playing cards and opulent leather-bound menus. In the meantime, within the inside design scheme gorgeously contrasting inexperienced majolica tiles and distinguished neon signage convey depth to the straightforward palette, permitting that vivid, pulsating pink to retain its surprising urgency wherever it’s used.
The ultimate ingredient on this heady concoction of an id is the very good pictures by Martí Pujol. The inside seems immaculate. The meals seems irresistible. The clientele look ravishing. The imagery glints between the illicit glamour of classic paparazzi, and the intimate spontaneity of flash-lit house-party snaps taken on a disposable digicam.
It goes with out saying that every one of this makes Knahia really feel prefer it’s from a unique planet (not to mention completely different city) from the unthreatening family-friendly whites, woods and seaside blues of its neighbouring institutions. In a city of tamer pleasures, Knahia is a respite for these tortured souls who want a bit of naughtiness with their nigiri.
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