More Cupcakes

Chicago, Illinois

Working closely with our client as well as with James Beard Award winner Gale Gand and famed restaurateur Henry Adaniya, we created an intimate Gold Coast boutique infused with luscious materials and creamy light—abstractions of the pure ingredients and flavors in more's couture cupcakes. The store's tiny size—550sf—had to be meticulously planned to find space for patrons, merchandise display and sales, and a full kitchen. Its exterior was uninviting but unalterable, so it had to glow from within. We worked with a neon artist to design butter cream-colored swirls of backlighting behind translucent acrylic veils to evoke twirled peaks of frosting and the sense of fragrant steam rising from freshly baked cakes. The standard under-counter case suffices for the everyday cupcake but not for these exquisitely crafted gems. They are presented as precious objects in a jewelry store, arrayed at eye level in a scaffolding of burnished aluminum and milky acrylic—a flight of cupcakes that elevates the experience from common bakery to uncommon boutique.