Our design process.
Often its difficult to fully understand what you’re getting in to when you’re thinking about investing in an Interior Designer. The process can be long, tedious, and sometimes stressful. Our aim is to alleviate, and ease the design process for you, in order to create a comprehensive design approach. Here’s how we do it!
Stage 01. Concept
This is where we collaborate with you. We want to know your style, and how you see yourself within the space we are designing for you. We establish the full scope of your project, and in response we create a design direction, propose finishes, and discuss feature design elements…and if you want to see how your space will look, our talented 3D renderer will create computer generated visualizations of your space.
Stage 02. Documentation
This is where the design comes to life, floor plans are finalized and materials are signed off. We prepare the construction documentation including specifications to be given to your builder of choice. All details are coordinated and signed off by you.
Stage 03. Project Administration
Almost there! Your project is well underway, and we’re still here to help. We assist in responding with any queries from builders and consultants, undertake routine site inspections, and when the project is complete, we are there for the final defect inspection.
If you would like to know more about our design process, or if you have a project you’d like to discuss, call us on 03 9429 3325 or email conrad@blackmilk.com.au.
Rebel Blue
Rebel Blue – Greek Street Food taken to the next level, residing on the iconic Chapel street amongst the vibrant entertainment precinct. Drawing inspiration from the culture of its surrounds of the ever-evolving Windsor end, the new design imitates a culture of a younger demographic.
The design intent was always to compliment the motion of street food, sharing, conversation and movement. Pulsating electric blue pipework forces your eye from the front of the restaurant, all the way to the back amongst intimate booth seating, dressed in mesh screens.
The movement of the pipework draws you to illuminated street signage, adding to the notion of street culture with directions to Mykonos, Athens or Oakleigh.
The curved tiles showcased on the center bar create an optical fantasy. The tiles sweep you up, in an uninterrupted smooth curve of tile work to add comfort to the bar experience. Contrasted against these tiles, polished concrete walls sit behind pipework amongst a warm glow of lighting, offering a variety of dimming experiences to patrons.
Dine in or out, the Greek Street food presence will be with you at Rebel Blue.
Take a look at the project photographs here.
RocoMamas
Hailing from South Africa, Roco Mamas is a new eatery in town. The flagship store surrounds itself within the hustle and bustle of Chapel Street Windsor food precinct, specializing in burgers and ribs.
Whilst aligning with the original Roco Mamas brand, the design intent combines industrial and urban. It’s where Chapel Street meets Roco Mamas. In the original branding, orange is paramount to its identification. To create a feature, the centralized shipping container cookline and bar form a bold design solution to the brief. The orange pops of colour are showcased throughout the design, in details of condiment holders, pendant lighting, and in neon lighting and signage to create an orange glow effect to the restaurant.
A playful aspect of the design can be seen through its signage. The signage aims to make you smile, with the inclusion of puns, a play on words through neon lighting, with the addition of clever, on brand graphics designed by HyDesign.
If you choose to dine at Roco Mamas, make sure to check out the bathrooms.
See the full project photos here.
The Other Brother
Meet The Other Brother. Workplace dining taken to a new level, with a sleek, contemporary addition to the ANZ tower in Docklands. A place for local employees to dine and meet amongst an architecturally designed space.
The brief entailed a number of constraints. Whilst the tower has been architecturally designed, it was integral that the design of The Other Brother integrated within the space seamlessly. Given the high end composure of the buildings design, The Other Brother acquired sophisticated finishes to resolve and compliment the refinery in its’ design.
Visually, the curved shapes of the architectural features, tables and servery create a vivid contrast in regard to the rigid geometry of the linear ceilings.
Drawing down from the linear ceilings, bespoke pipe-like lighting exposes itself to create intimate spaces underneath large dish like pendants. Patrons are able to sit amongst booth seating, bar height benches, or a large communal table set in front of a feature tiled wall, set in a subtle hue of cherry red. These delicately selected hues seduces the overall café experience.
There were various requirements to the business that needed to be addressed within the design. This was a result of its types of customers – those after a quick Grab and Go meal, those after a dine in experience, coffee goers, and even those having a business meeting. The design of the café considers all of the required customer types, and responds to them clearly.
The timeless design portrays depth and substance within this contemporary eatery aimed to attract people from the ANZ precinct and beyond. The design intent was to integrate effortlessly within the shell that was given, offering a sense of sophistication and finesse to a venue for professionals to dine in or takeaway.
In terms of a working environment, wait staff are contained within a the central servery, with a kitchen closeby to replenish food displays. The two food areas create an efficient workspace for wait staff to clearly be able to interact with patrons without the sound of a commercial kitchen.
The design reflects innovative and excellent design practice through its clear, coherent response to a site-specific location. The café stands alone and has a sense of belonging. It’s sympathetic to the finishes preselected within the shell of the base building, yet still identifies as its own venue.
Taking into consideration its surrounding water outlook, the design has been carefully curated for patrons to have the ability to dine and look out to the iconic Docklands landscape. This is vital to workers within the building, to have the ability to wonder down from their desk and escape from the daily workplace routine.
You can check out the full project photographs here.
Love Machine
Located in the hub of Chapel Streets entertainment precinct, the iconic dance club of Love Machine has been reinvented, abducting patrons inside the imaginary digital world of Tron.
The brief for this project was to move away from heavily featured nightclub trends of vintage/underground, with the intention of creating something that hasn’t been experienced in Melbourne before.
The futuristic design is a social statement on a younger generation, captivated within today’s fast paced technologically based world. Young party-goers are forever searching for the latest visual stimulation.
The interior attributes of multi-sensory elements across the cohesive use of finishes, combined with the audio & visual platforms, for example the inclusion of mirrors and LED strip lighting, allow for an intriguing distortion and reflection of the AV effects taken to another level of exhilaration. The lighting and visual effects of blue pinstripe lighting draws its inspiration on the internal workings of a circuit board in a contemporary interpretation.
Architecturally, the inclusion of a new mezzanine structure featuring exclusive VIP lounge seating also caters to the Love Machine party show ponies. You can even be mistaken for floating in an alternate universe when you enter the bathrooms, with sky/cloud graphics having been applied to the floor.
The visual party addict having satisfied their quest for the latest fix, to lose themselves in infinity at Love Machine.
Check out the full project photos here, or jump onto Love Machines Facebook Page.
Nikos Cakes
The next generation of the iconic Nikos Cakes patisserie represents itself in a new North side location of Fairfield, Victoria.
Conceptually, the design was developed to sympathize with the industrial warehouse shell, accentuating its existing design features including the polished concrete floor, saw tooth roof, and steel garage style shopfront windows.
The design intent marries the idea of contemporary industrial crossed with a traditional, Greek notion. Steel structures compete with patterns of feature rolling pin screens, to create a contemporary interpretation of this tradition Greek notion of cooking, food and sharing.
Decorative tiles to the counter fronts, tabletops and floor finish also creates depth to this Iconic Greek patisserie, paired with decorative pots, pans and cooking utensils to add warmth, and a sense of home to the industrial shell that once was. The addition of polished brass and Calcutta marble benches are highlights drawn from traditional patisserie style bistro design elements.
The open elements of the industrial space allow you to focus on the abundant cakes and biscuit displays, while you gaze full view into the production kitchen to see the theatre of cake creations.
This is what Nikos Cakes do best.
You can check out the full project photographs here, or even check out Nikos Cakes here.
Super 8 Cafe – Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Melbourne
Blackmilk is proud to announce one of their recently completed projects, the Super 8 Cafe at the new Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Melbourne (VCCC).