Mokum

May 18

mokum

When from the distant past nothing remains, after the beings have died, after the things are destroyed and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, yet more vital, more insubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of everything else; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the immense architecture of memory.

Yet again I had recalled the taste of a bit of madeleine dunked in a linden-flower tea which my aunt used to give me, immediately the old grey house on the street where her room was found, arose like a theatrical tableau...
It is plain that the object of my quest, the truth, lies not in the cup but in myself.

No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me.

And suddenly the memory revealed itself.

And I begin to ask myself what it could have been, this unremembered state which brought with it no logical proof, but the indisputable evidence, of its felicity, its reality, and in whose presence other states of consciousness melted and vanished. I decide to attempt to make it reappear.

– Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

After meeting with the founders and hearing what they envisioned to create for their Upper West Side restaurant, everything – the food, the place, the feeling, the cozyness, the flavors, the smells – took us straight to that delightful and sublime description from Proust of how madeleine would provoque a series of feelings, memories and moments.

We took this inspiration as a starting point, directing our focus towards produce, fresh ingredients and the beauty in them. We photographed them and translated the resulting images into abstract illustrations which accompany the branding elements through all its different applications.

We strived to created something non-graphic, a very personal approach, ready for people to interpret and discover. We then added poetry, also in an abstract fashion, but changing and switching sentences and specific words, because we saw the metaphor of the culinary simplicity and complexity behaving the same as words and language do.