DD&F was very happy to meet Mark and Karen Vojtek, owners of Culinary Solutions, back in November. “Once we met them and listened to their story, we could really identify with their struggle. Being a business owner in this down economy, a husband and wife duo trying to run a business and also manage family life at the same time…their story really touched us,” says Sandy Bruce. 

Mark and Karen had been through a rough couple of years with their restaurant through the recession, and had voiced their concerns about moving forward with their business. They were facing serious financial hardship and did not know how long they could maintain their seven year old business. “We did not think twice when we were approached to be part of a renovation to the café to boost morale and keep it alive. We knew right away that our area of expertise could really help make a difference and the Mark’s Cafe project got very exciting in a short amount of time,” said  Bruce.

Before we knew it, there were at least six businesses on board, and board meetings began titling the project “Saving Mark’s Café.” DD&F was on the team, and was responsible for rebranding, designing and fabricating a fabulous new interior, to match the inside of the cafe with the quality and caliber of the food that comes out of Mark’s kitchen.

BEFORE PHOTOS OF CULINARY SOLUTIONS:

Other businesses involved in the “Saving Mark’s Café” project include Farnham Design; a designer in charge of the new logo, menus and rebrand, Bright Bokeh; a team of local videographers,  Chris Loomis Photography; a photographer who was responsible for before/during/after photos, Vanderwall PR, a local PR representative who helped distribute news about the project, Social Media Mad Scientists; a company who helped with our viral videos and facebook page, The Follow Us Agency, the Saving Mark’s Cafe project manager,  Esquared Builders, general contractor responsible for demolition, TR Painting painted the new interior,Dale Cartwright Flooring completed the new floor, and Paul Swek;  a local artist who created the tabletop design overlays.

After many meetings, decisions, and networking, the restaurant demolition began on Monday, May 9^th, with Mother’s Day as their last day operating as Culinary Solutions. The floor installation, and painting followed the same week, and , and on May 16th, DD&F came to the restaurant to install all of the new components, and completely revamp the café.

Here are the original renderings that were presented by DD&F:

 DEMOLITION

DD&F INSTALLATION

Mark’s Café opened the doors for customers for the reveal on May 19th.  AFTER PHOTOS

The café had a “Re-Grand Opening” on May 25^th. Mark’s Café is located on the corner of Rural and Guadalupe at 6340 S. Rural Road, Suite 120 Tempe, Arizona. For information on Mark’s Café, please visit www.markscafeaz.com or you can call 480-839-6455.

Links to news coverage on Mark’s Café:
6/9/2011 – Arizona Republic – http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/2011/06/09/20110609tempe-culinary-solutions-cafe-tempe-gets-makeover-new-name-marks-cafe.html?source=nletter-news

5/25/2011 – ABC 15 – http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_southeast_valley/tempe/tempe-restaurant-saved-by-community

5/17/2011 – East Valley Tribune – http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/the_valley/ahwatukee/article_e51153d0-a09a-500f-9ae9-36a824c378f5.html

5/17/2011 – Ahwatukee Foothills News – http://www.ahwatukee.com/news/article_5b76a9d8-8012-11e0-83ec-001cc4c002e0.html

5/16/2011 – Mouth X Southwest – http://mouthbysouthwest.com/2011/05/16/customers-help-turn-culinary-solutions-cafe-into-marks-cafe/

5/13/2011 – Arizona Republic – http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/dining/articles/2011/05/13/20110513culinary-solutions-cafe-tempe-changes-name-marks-cafe.html

5/10/2011 – Phoenix New Times – http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bella/2011/05/struggling_tempe_cafe_gets_sav.php#more

5/9/2011 – Fox 10 – http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpp/news/business/hurting-cafe-in-tempe-gets-free-renovation-5-9-2011

Spring Training is always such a fun time here in the Valley! DD&F  has had the opportunity the past couple years to update the branded environment out at the San Francisco Giants Baseball Club in Scottsdale. 

Some of the project specifics include incorporating the San Francisco skyline into the wall of the Sports and Medicine training room and updating the San Francisco Giant gym with other minor league logos. DD&F spruced up the lobby and baseball club entry with frosted window graphics and a vinyl “Champions” logo on entry glass. Various logos, signage and quotes were also placed throughout the weight room, pool room and meeting rooms. 

DD&F also updated the gate signs, an exterior monument sign and a brushed aluminum sign panel with dimensional elements and updated their current signage to reflect their “world champion” status!

 For more information on the San Francisco Giants visit their main page at http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com or their spring training page at http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/stadium.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you are thinking to yourself, why I haven’t I heard of this spot yet…the hip, new restuarant just offically opened it’s doors on Monday, May 9th.

First of all, let us tell you, Betty’s Nosh is like no other!  Check out the inside of this place!

When you arrive to grub on the “nosh”, you can take your seat one of the Zen or Parson’s tables. The tables are square or round, and were created in various sizes, with distressed alder tops, deep expresso stains and alder legs and steel bases.

You won’t have any trouble finding the restrooms with these fun and funky signage plates for the “burts” and ”betty’s”. The plates are brushed aluminum with painted acrylic, incorporated with fabric from the restaurant”s interior, with customized symbols for each.  The restroom signs were a lot of fun to create and play with the incorporating fabric.

A few othere notables around the restaurant include the Betty’s Nosh blackboard, which DD&F framed with a distressed frame, in a deep espresso stain and clear epoxy finish to match the tables.

We also designed kitchen screens that gives the kitchen a little privacy from the restaurant which are made out of aluminum construction.

Last but not least, we can’t forget all of the signage inside and outside the restaurant. For the mushroom bar signage we designed 3D white and red letters.  The double-sided sign hung above the entrace of Betty’s Nosh, is a painted panel with dimensional letters, with metal patina. On the glass windows surrounding the private dining room, we enhanced the space with decorative, translucent imaging with the Betty’s Nosh logo.

For the exterior sign, we used illuminated pan channel letters with neon illumination.

For more information on Betty’s Nosh, you can visit http://www.bettysnosh.com/ or join them on facebook.

Can you have any more fun than skulking around junkyards for salvageable stuff,and making money doing it? Enter a local fabrication company who specializes in the three R’s – reuse, repurpose and recycle.

They are refreshingly eco-centric across virtually every aspect of their business. So who is it? Down in the industrial district of Phoenix lies a fascinating workshop that transforms seemingly useless plastic, steel and aluminum discards into beautiful, dimensional signage, exhibits, kiosks and displays. For a perfect example, check out this utterly fabulous custom table made from recycled automotive parts for a PIR charity event. What guy wouldn’t want this treasure?

Detail Design & Fabrication (DD&F) works with architects, developers, retailers and others like Chase Field, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Arizona Cardinals, Pulte Homes, Phoenix International Raceway, Westcor, The Children’s Museum of Phoenix and many others to create custom display or signage needs of any type. Read the whole article here.

Upon completeing the initial assignment, we were thrilled to hear that they were interested in expanding the project by having us provide complete, turnkey services at the new sales centers located in Chandler, Good Year and Marana.

We utilized our turnkey services in fabrication, millwork, signage and value engineering to bring this concept to life. Project details included fabricating and installing a complete interior for the sales center and signage for both the salescenter and the model. The interior contained custom wall build-outs, which contained dynamic lifestyle images and phrases. The custom millwork was a combination of specialty wood veneer, and a custom lacquer, high gloss finish. The bright, bold colors mixed with crisp whites will provide an energetic atmosphere for prospective buyers. Some stand-out features inside include a translucent, double-sided aerial photo of the community, window imaging, and various decorative and text imaging on the walls.

A few multimedia features include an interactive touch-screen topographic map, allowing agents a better opportunity to give prospective buyers a more in-depth look at the community and surrounding areas and a custom welcome kiosk featuring a sign-in station. We also created a marketing trailer which the builder will use for freeway recognition. For more information about Maracay Homes please visit their website at www.maracayhomes.com.

Remember our blog post about the mini-house we created  for the sponsorship project for Lennar Homes?

Well, EXCITING NEWS,  this past weekend at the Cardinals game, one lucky fan won a new Lennar home when LaRod Stephens-Howling  returned the opening kickoff 102 yards for a touchdown.

Every time an Arizona Cardinal returns an opening kickoff for a touchdown, Lennar will give away a home for free. The campaign is called “Take it to the House.”  The Lennar promotion goes through the last home game, and you have to pre-register the week of every home game to be eligible.

Here is a video from ABC 15 that showcases the return and the lucky couple. 

To see some more fun photos of the Lennar mini house that DD&F designed, check out Lennar’s facebook page!

The DD&F team sends a HUGE congratulations to the lucky winners of the new Lennar home!  To our Cardinals, GREAT game, and of course a big congrats to Lennar on a successful promotion.  Thanks so much for including DD&F with the “Take it to the House” project.  What a fun group!

Weigh Your Energy!  Not all energy sources are created equal.  Some are less harmful on the enviroment, where others give off loads of carbon dioxide.    This exhibit allows visitors to use the scales to compare how much each source of energy weighs in terms of cost of production, carbon dioxide and pollutant supply. 

The four different componants of the exhibit are:
Nuclear - energy that is created through fission of atoms
Natural Gas – gas found in the ground made of Carbon and Hydrogen
Coal – combustible rock mined from the Earth
Solar – radient energy in the form of heat and light

For more information on Solarville, click here.

DD&F created D-Backs at Junior Achievement

As the official sign and graphic partner of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Detail Design and Fabrication, Inc. ( DD&F ) created this unique environment at Junior Achievement of Arizona in their JA “BizTown”.

Junior Achievement is an organization that inspires and helps prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace.

JA BizTown™ encourages students to learn about the free enterprise system by participating in a simulated town. Students get a chance to work in different “environments,” and realize the relationship between what they learn in school and their participation in a simulated economy.

For the Diamondback project, DD&F created a scaled down version of an actual ticket window.  The 250 sq ft space uses 20 actual stadium seats from Chase field, and has a 52″ plasma screen featuring a highlight reel of Diamondback moments.  It also has 2 computer work stations for conducting mock sales transactions.

The project was completed in September 2008, and DD&F donated a portion of the cost to benefit Junior Achievement.

detail design and fabrication, inc. | ddandf  | dd&f | creators of cool stuff

A field in northwest Phoenix was supposed to be dedicated as Eric Byrnes Field, but the Diamondbacks outfielder had a different idea.  Byrnes announced at the ceremony that instead it would be called Saulo Morris Field in honor of the 18-year-old Thunderbird High student who died in December of leukemia.  DD&F donated a portion of the original sign, as well as the changes to reflect the tribute.

detail design and fabrication, inc. | ddandf | dd&f | creators of cool stuff