Work / Interior & Furniture, Hospitality & F&B, Brand Identity
Balance Cafe
A café for Caesar Projects: the interior, designed with Farhad from sketch to finished room, and the brand.
Balance Cafe is a café for Caesar Projects. Farhad and I designed the interior together at Farhad Design: the plan, five seating areas, the tree bookshelf, the faces wall and the statue at the centre, from hand sketches and renders to the finished café. I also designed its brand, from the balancing-stones logo to the illustration on the cups.
- Client
- Caesar Projects
- Role
- Interior designer (with Farhad, Farhad Design) and brand designer
- Team
- Farhad Design
- Years
- 2025 to 2026
- Year
- 2026
The idea
A calm café with soft curves, warm plaster and a few philosophical pieces: a statue, a wall of faces and a tree-shaped bookshelf.
The interior
Five areas, each sketched, modelled and rendered before it was built: the waiting circle, corner seating, the philosophy table, the bar and the library corner.
The brand
A balancing-stones mark in olive, gold and charcoal, and a hand-drawn shore printed around the cups.
Balance Cafe
A café for Caesar Projects. Farhad and I designed the interior together at Farhad Design, from the first sketches to the finished room, and I designed the café's brand.
Bardia Bastami with Farhad, Farhad Design
The idea
Caesar Projects wanted a café where people slow down. We kept everything soft: rounded corners, warm plaster, low light and a lot of green.
On top of that calm base we added a few pieces with a philosophical theme. There is a statue at the centre, a wall of sculpted faces, and a bookshelf that grows across the wall like a tree.
We started with hand sketches of the plan and each corner, then modelled and rendered every area before it was built.
Five areas
A round seating island right in front of the entrance, with a statue in the middle. This is where people wait for a takeaway coffee, so it had to be comfortable for a few minutes and look good from every side.
For eating, working and reading
Curved built-in benches around soft-edged tables, with tall planters between them for some privacy. Made for people who stay longer.
A handmade table for six
A solid wood table with natural edges. Behind it, the tree bookshelf and a water wall. On the opposite wall, a grid of sculpted philosophers' faces.
A smooth linear counter with soft light underneath and display shelving behind it. It is built for fast service but stays calm to look at.
The quietest part of the café
A low lounge under floating bookshelves, set into a plaster wall shaped like a cave. Soft poufs that look like stone keep the curved language going.
The finished café
Short clips filmed inside after it opened.
The brand
The name comes from balancing stones. I drew the mark in three colours, olive, gold and charcoal, with a spaced serif wordmark. The cups carry a hand-drawn shore with one stack of stones.
Crafted together by Farhad Design and Caesar Projects.
