Bolt Designs is a New-York based design firm founded in 2016 by Matt Dennis who is also a lead designer in the firm. Their growing team of fewer than 10 designers offers an array of design services like furniture and fixture selections, architecture and interior design, project management, and complete design and execution. They specialize in high-end large scale hospitality, commercial and event spaces, making them ‘multidisciplinary’ in nature. Their ideology is that the quality of a design plays a great deal of influence in the minds of the end-user.
THE FOLLOWING ARE THE COMPLETED PROJECTS BY BOLT DESIGNS:
1. Wow Donuts
Location: Dallas, Texas
Inaugurated: Fall Of 2018
Size: 2400 Sq. Ft
Role of Bolt Designs: Architecture, Design And Build, Interior Design
The rather flashy interior work with charismatic tones of green, blue, pink, and red are being effectively neutralized by the stable colors of grey, light teak, and white. The color composition and the spatial organization is done in such a way that the design is taking its inspiration from the principle food item being served i.e., donuts. Utmost importance and emphasis are given to both, the food item itself as well as the way it is served to the customer. The serving is emphasized in such a way that each article of the eatery is delivered to the buyer’s table with so much importance and poetry that the satisfaction and significance of the donut seem to rise in the consumer’s perspective.
The designers state that the eatery is designed in such a way that it reflects the attention to the detail and precision that goes into making a donut by focusing on the tiniest bit of element(s) in the space. This also has a lot to do with their design philosophies. All in all, there is a great deal of symbolism going on in this design piece.
2. The Druid Garden
Location: Bangalore, India
Inaugurated: 2017
Size: 13,168 Sq Ft
Role of Bolt Designs: Architectural Design + Interior Design
The Garden City of India saw the addition of this brewpub conceptualized around everything the City stands for. There is a seamless connection between the outdoor and the indoor spaces with greenery acting as the unifying feature amongst the two… To furthermore reflect the ‘garden’ aspect of it, more airy spaces with a total of five skylights, large windows, double-height spaces, and roomy furniture arrangements were done. The major materials were concrete and textured wooden panels were cladded onto the asymmetrical walls and ceiling. The environment created by this architecture is truly a ‘lush’ outcome.
3. Lotsa Balls
Location: Metuchen, Nj
Inaugurated: Summer Of 2019
Size: 3100 Sq Ft
Role of Bolt Design: Architecture Design + Interior Design
This American retro-style diner, claimed by the designers to take you back to your grandma’s living room in the 1970s; aims to trigger a rush or reminiscence and link a nostalgic emotion with it. Everything from its warm wooden cladded walls, to its old baseball television console, gives a flare of the homely’70s with a layering of what American sports culture then stood for.
The diner is equipped with three main accessible rooms: the dining room, raised ‘rec’ room, and the living room. Where the dining room is equipped with clean white tiles, wooden slats, and patterned fabric… The living room, on the other hand, is tiled with the classic black and white checkered flooring, housing a television by a wall lined with a series of VHS tapes to further strengthen the emotion of the space.This whole composition, though allegorically fits the vintage ‘aura’ perfectly, makes sure present-day comforts are provided to every customer utilizing the space.
4. Upside Pizza
Location: Manhattan, New York
Inaugurated: 2019
Size: 468 Sq Ft
Role of Bolt Design: Architectural Design + Interior Design
Located on the busy streets of Manhattan, New York; this small 90’s themed pizza eatery is equipped with a street-facing glass façade for establishing a visual connection between the indoors and the outdoors. The materials used (the custom hand-painted concentrated checkedred tiles, the concrete countertop, and the black table with a baby pink grid pattern) give an illusion of prominence and enables visibility in the dense streets of New York.
Its perfection lies in how it matches the hustling lives of people in the City. A small cubicle with 2×2 countertops facing the streets for a quick slice of pizza? It sounds like a dream to a busy New Yorker.
5. Dan Jones
Location: Manhattan. New York
Inaugurated: 2019
Size: 468 Sq Ft
Role of Bolt Designs: Architecture Design + Interior Design
Dan Jones, a coffee bar and café in Midtown East, Manhattan aims to provide a cozy environment to all the visitors by trying to break the monotony of rigid shapes and materials like glass and concrete. It also sways away from the pallets of grey and black for the same reason.The work is done in warm wooden slats; the walls are soft and curve right up to the ceiling. Terracotta colored background completes the composition. There were a lot of conscious design improvisations done to visually make space look bigger than it is, and the mirrored ceiling and long vertical wooden slats were some of them.
*The above stated projects are executed and completed by bolt designs. However, there are a few projects that are still under development. Some of which are:
6. Bull And Butterfly, Los Angeles
A steakhouse with interesting elements like the wooden wall cladding and the arched framework creating a vista by the seating. The intention behind the same was to achieve a Southern Californian look and create a very chic aura for the place.
7. Zocalo, New York
A restaurant with an integrated feel of traditions and Mexican culture that houses equal elegance and a warm ambiance created from the off – white colored decorative lighting fixtures, the intimate seating, with the ‘alleyway’ kind of linear planning. The color palette used is grey for the walls and ceiling, with colorful tiles and counter to stand out.
8. The Juice Shop, Brooklyn
The lower part of the store is tiled in concentrated basil green, while the upper region is plain white. This gives it a ‘dipped’ look. The funky yet practical design is implemented throughout the store giving it a sense of uniformity and continuity.
9. Curry Up Now, Across North America
Curry up now is an Indian restaurant that has its franchises under work in various locations across South America. And there also seems to be flexibility in the design language of each of them. Some are intended to give out a ‘wine and dine’ feel, while the others are more of a casual setting.
From all the projects that we saw (both completed and under development), it is clear that BOLT DESIGNStruly reflects their ideologies and design philosophies in their built structures. There has been so much heterogeneity across their various projects, yet all of them come full circle and have a language so personal and unique to them. With only approximately four years into the field, they hopefully have much more of architecture and design to be executed in future projects.
