A Taste of Urbanspace opened in early December 2019 with 5 vendors, after Urbanspace (Manhattan’s preeminent foodhall operator) was given the opportunity in the Fall of 2018 to take over the shuttered Isabella Eatery in one of the country’s most luxury malls. As senior designer at Memo, I helped shepherd Urbanspace’s brand into a new space and city with several key challenges.
First, the introduction of Urbanspace to a new audience would occur under the cloud of negative press surrounding the previous project’s demise. Second, the high-end mall’s customers represented a new client type for Urbanspace. Lastly, the timeline was aggressive: an initial soft launch in time for the 2018 holiday shopping frenzy, with our work commencing two months in advance.
We developed a brand identity and experience for the project with two high-level goals in mind: to embrace the work-in-progress aspect of the initial activation and to bring a sense of community back to the market. It was clear that the best way to bring positive vibes back to the space was by focusing on the community that the market represents. Working with British illustrator Leon Edler, we created a series of characters which speak to the diversity of both the customers as well as the restaurateurs.
Neither time nor budget allowed us to make major changes to the existing market interior or the vendor booths. We covered what we could – mixing old and new as needed, we introduced the new market identity as economically and judiciously as possible.
Additionally, we helped the vendors express their identities, several of whom had not before operated a brick-and-mortar establishment, using as much of the existing booth structures as possible.