Jessica Bosworth Smith

This project explored the creation of a bespoke craft beverage venue, a space where brand storytelling and spatial experience intersect. The brief challenged me to design a unique craft beer microbrewery and restaurant, inspired by the identity of a non-beverage South African brand. The goal was to translate that brand’s values, narrative, and visual language into the interior environment, as well as the beverage packaging and menu design, forming a cohesive and immersive experience.

For this concept, I chose Jessica Bosworth Smith, a Cape Town–based artist celebrated for her expressive, narrative-driven paintings and her experimental work with found objects and ceramics. Her distinctive approach to storytelling through texture, form, and colour became the foundation for the microbrewery’s design language, transforming the space into a living canvas that celebrates artistic spontaneity, materiality, and imagination.

The South African brand Jessica Bosworth Smith offers a rich collection of sculptures and paintings that inspired the brewery’s interior design. The colours and patterns from her artwork shaped the space’s palette and decorative motifs, while the mood evoked by her pieces influenced the overall aesthetic. The space aims to create a sense of wonder and imaginative escape, reflecting the artist’s mission to make art that extends one’s imagination. This vision comes alive as soon as guests enter the brewery.
A key focus of the design is celebrating femininity and the beauty of a feminine touch. The artist captures this through colour, visual storytelling, and the evocative names of her paintings. Incorporating this sensibility into the interior amplifies and honours that celebration.

The bar was designed as a physical extension of imagination, reflecting the brand’s creative ethos through a playful and expressive spatial layout. With shareable dishes at the heart of the brewery experience, the design eliminates traditional seating to encourage fluid movement and interaction, opening possibilities for artistic and unconventional forms.
Drawing inspiration from the idea of a true beer garden, the outdoor area was envisioned as a living artwork, blending lush greenery, floral details, and a central water feature to evoke a sense of tranquillity and connection to nature. The aesthetic draws from a painting by Jessica Bosworth Smith, where bold checkerboard tiling surrounds a pool. This visual became the foundation for the garden’s design, with black-and-white tiles and seating arranged around a water element, creating a cohesive, imaginative environment that bridges art, nature, and design.