How This South Korean Coffee Shop Was Designed to Look Like a Cartoon
Greem Café in Seoul, South Korea, is a coffee shop unlike any other. Upon entering the shop, patrons find themselves transported into a two-dimensional world inspired by the hit Korean animated Web series W. Inside the narrow café, walls, counters, furniture, and even forks and knives are crafted to look like two-dimensional drawings come to life. Dark outlines on every object and matte white surfaces create an effect that resembles a room ripped from a cartoonist’s notebook. Not coincidentally, W. follows the story of a man caught between two worlds, ours and an alternate cartoon reality. The flat-line aesthetic pervades every aspect of the space from chairs to cutlery, compressing the room into a two-dimensional plane, and giving the impression that the space is made only of so much paper and ink.
The shop’s name, Greem, comes from a Korean word which can mean a cartoon or a painting; it is also sometimes called Café Yeonnam-Dong 223-14, which is simply the café’s street address.
Marketing manager J.S. Lee tells Architectural Digest that the design is more than just a gimmick to get people in the door, or the reflection of a personal passion for cartoons. The design is the café’s very reason for being. “I think almost all coffee brands supply similar coffee taste,” he says. Rather, it’s the experience that the café’s many patrons are after. Visitors, he says, “want to make unique memories in a memorable place.”
Indeed, the main draw to his coffee shop doesn’t seem to be coffee at all; a quick search for Greem Café on Instagram reveals an endless torrent of selfies in the uncanny space, all tagged to the café’s page. Three-dimensional human beings smile as they pose on two-dimensional chairs that appear to be made only of paper, and sip lattes and matchas from equally flat-looking mugs. Fully aware that social media is driving the shop’s business, Lee has posted on Facebook reminding potential guests that photography is forbidden until a visitor has made a purchase.
In fact, the draw of the selfie has proved so powerful that the café has already outgrown its first location; the shop has moved into a larger space down the street, but kept the old address as its name for continuity. The original café was a narrow storefront, where quarters were cramped. In the new facility, sippers and selfie-takers can hang out on a roof terrace—complete with a stylized 2D clothesline and patio furniture in the café’s signature style. Lee also says that he expects to open additional coffee shops around Korea and, he hopes, the world.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
