Bao'd Up — Doris Yu

Bao’d Up - Modern Asian Eats

Bao’d Up is a fast-casual restaurant that offers steamed buns(baozi), authentic noodle dishes, and delicious boba tea drinks.

Bao’d Up was born in Austin TX, a weird city that interweaves culture, art, music, and technology.

One foot in the past, one foot in the future

This local business is committed to sharing the familiar flavors of traditional Chinese cuisine alongside American-inspired ingredients.

Food from the past, food for the future

Rio Grande

**Interior Renovation & Exterior Signage Design**

Mueller

(Coming Soon)
Wayfinding & Signage Design

Sunset Valley

**Interior Décor & Renovation**

Q2 Stadium

(Coming Soon)
Food Vendor Booth Design

The Renovation of the RIO GRANDE Location

Reviving in-store experience & Increasing efficiency

Goals:

To improve on the existing workflow and increase efficiency for both employees and customers
To transform from the COVID contactless system back to in-store dining format and face-to-face services
To enhance overall visual effects, be more eye-catching to potential new customers

Project Profile

Dates: July - Aug 2021

Duration: 4 weeks

Design Keywords: Interior, Spatial, Signage design, Branded Graphics

Research & Analyze

In the early stage of this project, I figured that human behaviors and movement patterns are the determining factors to design a new flow. Therefore, I spent several days sitting in the store observing the customer activities as well as watching the kitchen operation.

As the dine-in orders increases, the in-store customers and customers who just want to pick up their online orders formed a conflict of crowds in the space. With the lockers blocking their view, the dine-in customers ended up receiving confused and unsatisfied experiences.

Contactless Pick-up Lockers (Pre-renovation)

Modifying the Flow of Actions & Service Mode

In order to change the situation, I removed the lockers and locate the pick-up shelf on the left side of the entrance to avoid traffic. I also decided to trim the counter for a wide contact space in the serving area. A more open counter invites potential dine-in customers to the corresponding area and increases their willingness to order more. The food that a restaurant serves is surely the most attractive thing to a customer. Showing the freshly made food being ready to serve would help the sales since it also transforms the service flow to a more direct and straightforward format.

In addition, I changed the pattern of the laminated wood panels into a cleaner and less apparent wood grain and color. Then I added pendant heat lamps above the serving area so that the food appears brighter and more delicious. In this way, the customers are able to focus on the food in front of them without any distractions when they walk through the door and try to make decisions.

Expected Customer Flow (Post-renovation)

Front Counter & Queue Area (Post-renovation)

Counter Food-serving Area (Post-renovation)

Labels for an intuitive ordering process

Flourishing with an Eye-catching Exterior Signage

After making efforts on the in-store experience, it’s time to zoom out on the scale. There has to be something that draws people’s attention from afar within seconds and leads them to the experience. Therefore, I went with a much bolder and more popping style when redesigning the signs. In order to be visible and impressive at a distance, I modify the design to achieve enough contrast in both colors and sizes of elements.

Bao'd Up Exterior Signage (Pre-renovation)

Bao'd Up Exterior Signage (Post-renovation)

The Enhancement on the SUNSET VALLEY Location

Creating Experience & Vibes

The Sunset Valley store is located in a plaza south of Austin, which has much more dining spaces compared to the other locations. However, it suffered from its dim lighting condition and overly high ceiling which leads to a dining experience that needs improvement. Alex, the CEO of Bao’d Up, intended to draw back more in-store dine-in customers, especially after the COVID downtime.

After several discussions with Alex and other managers, I collected and organized a few keywords on how we wanted the store to FEEL: Nature, Relaxed, Trendy(Instagrammable), Comfortable while inexpensive.

Project Profile

Dates: Jan - March 2022

Duration: 8 weeks

Design Keywords: Interior, Spatial, Decoration

Mood board on interior vibes for the Sunset Valley location

Developing impressive moments

It’s hard and inefficient trying to achieve all the keywords with one added object or furniture. So I decided to create a few “discovery moments” scattered in the huge dining space. Thus, they can work together and piece a complete experience for the customers.

Chill Corner

The first “moment” is a chill corner close to the entrance door. It’s the most obvious location for people to discover and engage. By taking out a set of booth benches and adding a pair of rocking chairs with a carpet, this space provides an opportunity for people to relax while waiting for their food or after their meal. The addition of plants also flourishes the space with a sense of refreshing and calming.

Ceiling Decoration with Hanging Wooden Structure

In order to solve the ceiling and lighting issues, I decided to build a wooden structure hanging from the high ceiling. In this way, the wooden structure will cover the messy electricity and air tubes in the ceiling while providing a more aesthetically appealing visual effect in the store. After researching different materials and types of hanging structures, I chose a hollow, frame structure with thinner wood panels across each direction. Therefore, the structure is lighter and easier for hanging. The empty spaces between the wood panels also allow the lights and some decorative plants to go through.

Then, I switched the tiny, scattered pendant lights to a set of three pendant lights with a much wider diameter. The petal pieces around the blub make the light seem floating with its airy and light appearance. They also match with the hanging plants to create a moment of nature.