Gair, Bar & Restaurant
- Branding & Strategy
- Naming
- Dumbo used to be known as Gairville
Visual and narrative cues from Brooklyn’s past and present formed Karlssonwilker’s work for the DUMBO bar and restaurant Gair. The scope included creating a name and a logo, resulting in an identity that is rooted in the bar’s locality and history but executed with a playful, modern lightness.
The bar’s namesake Robert Gair was a turn-of-the-century entrepreneur whose factories dominated what is now known as the DUMBO neighborhood. We chose his name for the bar as it's punchy, easy to remember, and open for interpretation at the same time as it offers an opportunity for storytelling.
The mark has an expressive simplicity that juxtaposes soft and sharp angles and plays with contrasting volumes. When printed on flat surfaces it looks lithesome and mobile-like, but in the exterior sign, the logo shapeshifts as the letters protrude from the wall and take on a muscular, three-dimensional appearance that nods to the cast concrete templates of the building’s architecture.
"Working with Karlssonwilker is fun because they like to push boundaries. But what makes their work so interesting is that they’re not trying to make you fit into their agenda, they start each project with an open mind and fresh approach. The branding they created for Gair is very unique, they were able to draw out the personality of the business and the people behind it and capture it."
The iconic 1904 structure that houses Gair today was built by Robert Gair and known as “Gair One.”
“Gair One” pioneered the reinforced-concrete construction method that still defines DUMBO buildings.
The vocabulary of the logo evolves even further in a hanging sign for the building’s side exterior (coming soon). In a nod to urban mythmaking and street culture, the letters have been reduced to their elemental shapes, which are slung over a pole like sneakers over a telephone wire.
In this large wall piece, the Gair logo has been deconstructed down to its geometric shapes and placed in a lush still-life setting that is reminiscent of medieval vanitas paintings.
