Be Clever My Friend!

Me and my neighbours love to hang out in front of our Büdchen (small corner shop) at Clever Street. Most people in Cologne have their favourite kiosk. Usually the shop owner becomes a significant part of your everyday life. Besides selling snacks, beer and newspapers, he or she always welcomes you, does big favours and gives you all the gossip from the neighbourhood. It becomes a person of trust and community.

As soon as we got a few coins when we were kids first thing we would do is run to our next Büdchen to buy sweets or ice cream. In Cologne there used to be around 1000 of them. But it seems that many of them can’t keep up due to the increasing numbers of the big grocery stores.

Our shop is struggling as well. So the owner asked me if I have any ideas to increase his business. I told him .. the most important thing is that people need to right away understand what you are, what you sell and everyone needs to be able to easily name your shop to differenciate it from the other shops near by. Cause there is always confusion. Which bakery of the two? Which kiosk of the three? Which street? And since we are located in the middle of the city international visitor should be able to get it too.

What the shop signage looks like now …

As a neighbourly favour I came up with a suggestion and did a rough mock up so he can imagine the difference. I believe the new name and signs say it all. I really hope the owner will be clever too and is willing to afford a couple of new stickers.

… and how it could look like.