A neighborhood wine bar for natural wine, good company, and a little clay on the table.
Positioning
Wine, hand-building ceramics, and somewhere to spend the whole evening.
Palette
Bar blue, bone, neon pink.
Mark
Loose handwritten capitals from the sign.
Line
Stay a while.
The prompts
As you probably already know, I use Clova! Since it's an agent, I just chat with it and tell it what to fix, and each image is like 10 back and forths to get to the final one. So what's below isn't exactly what I typed, it's basically my chat history squished into one prompt per image. Feel free to use whatever generator you want, but I personally use Clova!
The counter
A vertical photograph of the bar at Friend of a Friend, seen from a guest’s seat at a slightly off-center angle. A warm wooden counter, two small amber-shaded table lamps at different heights, and shelves holding vinyl records, wine bottles and glassware. A standing bone-colored menu near the front reads “FRIEND OF A FRIEND” in thin, irregular bar blue handwritten capitals. Keep the full name readable. One glass of pale wine and a small stack of paper coasters sit nearby, with plenty of clear counter space. A plain cream tile backsplash and simple wood joinery give the room a contemporary neighborhood-bar feeling. Photograph using the lamps and low ambient light: small pools of warm light on the counter, deeper neutral shadows, visible texture in the wood and paper. Quiet evening atmosphere, natural perspective, a little photographic grain.
The wine boxes
A vertical editorial photograph inside Friend of a Friend, a small contemporary neighborhood wine bar. An adult in a dark sweater and beige trousers holds four long matte cobalt-blue cardboard boxes stacked against their chest, with their eyes just visible above the top box and both hands supporting the bottom. The boxes are bar blue, printed in bone with the words “FRIEND OF A FRIEND” in thin, casually handwritten capital letters. Slightly uneven letter heights, simple two-bar capital Fs. A sparse wine-glass line drawing and small grape sketch sit beside the lettering. One tiny neon pink dash is the only accent. Dark wood wine shelves behind the person, low shelf lighting, a close candid crop. Direct on-camera flash, natural skin texture, deep shadows, visible folds in the cardboard, subtle photographic grain.
The bottle outside
A candid vertical photograph at a small street-side table outside Friend of a Friend. One tall clear bottle of hazy pale-gold wine and two simple stemmed wine glasses sit on a round, lightly veined marble table. The bottle has a small bone paper label reading “FRIEND OF A FRIEND” in loose bar blue handwritten capitals. No extra label claims or badges. One glass sits slightly forward and the other behind, with the bottle label facing the camera naturally. A dark green folding chair and a quiet doorway are partly visible at the edges. Directional afternoon daylight, real-looking glass reflections and shadows, faint condensation on the bottle. Muted stone, pale wine, cream paper and one blue brand detail. Plenty of clear tabletop, no elaborate place setting. A slightly off-center crop, restrained color, subtle film grain, the feeling of stopping for a glass with a friend.
The brand strategy
How I made it
The name took a few tries. So did the handwriting. Here’s the thinking I kept coming back to.
I started with somewhere I’d want to go
Before the ceramics, I wanted a really good wine bar. Warm wood, small lamps, handwritten menus. Somewhere you could bring a friend without having to explain the whole concept first.
That gave me a filter for everything I added: would I still want to spend an evening here? If the answer was no, the extra idea did not belong.
Wine gives you something to sip while you talk. Clay gives your hands something to do.
Then I gave the table something to do
I considered books, film, and ceramics. With hand-building, I could picture people talking across the table while they made something small. An olive dish, a coaster, a cup for another night.
The setup stays simple: a board, a little clay, a few tools. The piece stays for glazing and firing, and you come back to collect it later.
The collection gives you a reason to come back
Leaving the piece behind became part of the idea. It gets glazed and fired, then waits for you at the bar. The first visit makes something small. The second visit starts with picking it up.
That return matters more than adding another branded object. It gives the experience a natural rhythm, and it leaves room for somebody to bring a different friend next time.
The name should sound like someone sent you
I tried names like One More Thing, Nice Touch, and Handle with Care. Friend of a Friend gave me the story straight away: you know about it because someone brought you there.
It has that little feeling of discovery, with a warm welcome when you arrive. “Stay a while.” felt like something the place would actually say.
I kept the visual identity simple
I tried softer cursive lettering, then came back to the loose capitals from the sign. Thin strokes, different letter heights, and a little awkward in a way I liked.
The same hand can show up on the menu, matchbooks, wine boxes, and the window. Everything practical stays quiet around it, so the lettering still feels like somebody wrote it for this place.
Blue became the printed brand cue. The ceramics can be cream, pistachio, butter yellow, or lilac. I cleared space from the tables and kept the room contemporary, warm, and easy to settle into.
I had to take a few things back out
Some of the early images became very red. The tables filled up with tools and clay, and every ceramic piece turned blue. Together, it started feeling like a theme night instead of a place people would actually return to.
I kept the warmth in the lamps, left more of the table showing, and used one clear branded moment in each frame. The blue belongs on the sign, menu, packaging, and handwriting. The objects around it can be quieter and more varied.
The same restraint shaped the photography. Direct flash works for people and packaging. Small pools of lamplight make the room feel intimate. Daylight keeps the bottle shot believable. Each image only needs to do one job well.
Now that's the fake brand for the week!
Friend of a Friend isn't real.Yours is.
I help founder-led brands find their direction — through strategy, creative concepts and selected applications.
