It’s not very often that a future client literally knocks on your door with hopes to work together. A curious Chef Jordan Kahn walked into Stink Studios’s office in Culver City to spark the relationship and express his vision for a community café. His ambition, thoughtfulness, and passion for filling the void within Hayden Tract immediately lured us into the opportunity. Stinkdigital expressed Jordan’s vision through brand identity, collateral, and a website.
The name “Destroyer” was inspired by David H. Levy’s book, “Comets: Creators and Destroyers,” in which Destroyer represents a metaphorical comet. In building Destroyer’s identity, the challenge was to balance the boldness of the name with the inviting lightness of the physical space Jordan Kahn was imagining.
Inspired by the trajectory of a comet moving through the universe, we sought to embody the momentum of a comet by focusing on the name itself: Destroyer. The interletter spacing aligns to a grid we created which allows the name to appear as if in flight. The grid also works to inform a design system we used to create all visual materials used by Destroyer, from website to coffee bags.
In an effort to carry that system into the café’s physical space, we employ a high-powered projector that illuminates the web-based menu onto the cafe’s wall. Real-time daily updates to the site using a custom CMS simultaneously update the projection of the menu in one fell swoop, creating an automated layout within the structure of our typographic system.