THE FANTASTIC COLLECTION
The Fantastic Collection was designed and made by hand for the new FANTASTIC cocktail bar & restaurant in Tel Aviv. Inspired by fairy tales, poetry, fantastic literature, and wild animals, we have designed each cocktail cup to fit the surreal atmosphere of the place. Each cocktail cup was designed for a different cocktail, and each got a story to tell.
THE WORKING PROCESS
Getting the Fantastic collection from dream to reality took a lot of time and effort, almost 2 years of work.
The creative process started with dreaming and finding ideas, a simple idea for each cup. Every idea leads to finding inspirations and making research, after that we make sketches, and only after the creative process is done we start with the making.
All the colors we used for this collection were included in a color palette which was determined based on color research we have made especially for the Fantastic bar & restaurant, following their interior design vision, their aesthetics, and needs.
MAD HATTER CUP
The Mad Hatter Hat cup was inspired from the Mad Hatter character from Lewis Carols' Alice in Wonderland. As introduced in Carroll's book, the Hatter wears a large top hat with a hatband reading "In this style 10/6" (the price of tag of the hat). We have designed the cup accordingly, leaving the price tag white, so the bartenders who are serving the cocktail could write a little message to the customers if they want, and by that making the drink more personal and unique. The ceramic cup is also designed to swing on the table as its bottom is not flat, making it playful and cheeky, just like the character itself.
CATERPILLAR CUP
The caterpillar is one of our favourite characters from Lewis Carol's book "Alice in Wonderland", and when we took this book as an inspiration, the caterpillar came first to mind. We then made a research about caterpillars; their colors, their shapes, the dots and marks they have on their bodies, it took a lot of back and forth until we had the final design in our hands. The final result is a minimalistic caterpillar shaped cup, which can be stored upright just like you drink from it, or horizontal, on its feet.
RAVEN CUP
Inspired by “The Raven” written By Edgar Allan Poe. This cocktail cup was designed to be dark and furious, but we wanted to characterize it to be humoristic as well, and not so threatening. By doing so, we made the character more easygoing and cartoonish, fitting better to the rest of the collection and to the playful and surreal atmosphere of the cocktail bar.
CHESS CUP
Inspired by the game of chess. If you had to design only one character from the famous chess players, which one would you choose? It was a hard decision to make, but we decided to go for the queen of chess, as it is the most powerful piece in the game. Plus, we have decorated it with real gold, which is something we really wanted to do in this collection, adding a touch of Gold to the cup brought sparkle and shine to it and we loved it. As you can see, the result was stunning, when holding this cocktail cup you immediately feel strong, royal, and glamourous.
ELEPHANT CUP
Inspired by elephant legs, as simple as that. Unlike other cups we have designed in this collection, we have tried to give this cocktail cup a more heavy and stable feeling. The research and the sketches for the elephant legs were a lot of fun, we didn't want to make the design too realistic, but more cartoonish and playful. It was important for us to keep the design minimalistic, but other than that to make it iconic enough, so customers can immediately recognize this is an elephant leg they are drinking from.
CORSET CUP
The corset cup was inspired by Moulin Rouge, by the cabaret, by the famous can-can dance, and 18th-century fashion, when the style was all about a small waist. The colors we have chosen for this cup are black and burgundy, to fit the nightlife atmosphere and all the Femme Fatales that are out there.
BUNNY CUP
Inspired simply by bunnies, or by white rabbits to be exact! When stepping into the new FANTASTIC bar in Tel Aviv, you get the feeling you are going down the white rabbit hole straight into wonderland, so a white rabbit character was a must. This cocktail cup wasn't designed according to the Alice in Wonderland character, but instead, it was aimed to look like an ordinary, real, cute, white rabbit, the kind you can pet with your hands while drinking your cocktail, imagining you are in the wild.
FOOT CUP
The foot cocktail cup was inspired by Monty Python's famous foot, created by animator Terry Gilliam. Gilliam has animated a giant foot that randomly stamps down from the heavens obliterating objects beneath it, on the epic British television show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. He took his inspiration from Bronzino’s painting “An allegory with Venus and Cupid” (around 1545), and to be exact, from cupid’s foot which looks like it is stamping a pigeon on the corner of the painting. Some may find the experience of drinking a cocktail from a foot a little odd, and this is why it's a perfect fit to the FANTASTIC bar’s humanistic and surreal atmosphere
DRESS CUP
Inspired from Disney’s animated film “The Beauty and the Beast” and from the main character Belle’s dress. We love this animated film, and we fell in love with the idea of drinking a cocktail drink from a ball dress cup.
CARDMAN CUP
Inspired by Lewis Carols' Alice in Wonderland, the cardman character is referred to a card from a pack of playing cards, its iconic illustration was used in various movies, books, and TV shows. We have designed our own version of a ceramic cardman, and painted it black and white.
UMBRELLA PUNCH BOWL
The inspiration for the punch bowl was umbrellas, it is the only bowl in the collection and we love it! The bartenders can serve the umbrella punch bowl by holding the umbrella's hand, which gives a playful, warm, happy feeling at the table, the feeling of sharing a punch, just like sharing an umbrella.
ROSE CUP
The rose cup was inspired by stems of roses, as one of the main concepts of the interior decorating of the bar and restaurant, is plants. The tip of the cocktail cup is not straight, this decision was inspired by the way we take care of flowers, by trimming the edge of the stem.We have designed this cocktail cup to have spikes on it, just as you can find on real stems, so when holding the cup, you get a prickly feeling you don't usually get while drinking cocktails, this, in our opinion, makes the whole experience of drinking more playful.
BALL CUP
The Ball cocktail cup was inspired by an Eight-ball, the famous black ball from the pool game we all know. We wanted it to be round and black, but to keep it as simple as we can, without mentioning the number Eight. The round shape was perfect as it is, we added another short round part on the top of the cup, to make it more elegant and comfortable for drinking.
THE PIG
In addition to the cocktail cups we have designed for the FANTASTIC bar and restaurant in Tel Aviv, we were also lucky to design and create a pig for the main cocktail room. well, not really a pig, just its bottom parts. The idea was to make the bottoms of an animal in order to place it on the wall, instead of an animal's head as we usually see. We have worked together with the ceramicist Guy Jana to create an enormous ceramic statue, which is now decorating the main cocktail room of the bar. Browse through to see the work process, and the making of the final result.
