A Major Glow Up In Leeds

Zaap is a Thai street food restaurant with a new set-up in the heart of Headingley, Otley Road! Earlier this year, we were tasked with revamping, rebranding and bringing alive the brand new Zaap restaurant. Zaap wants its customers to step through their doors and instantly feel as though they have been transported to a Bangkok street food market with all the bright lights and the hustle and bustle that comes along with it.

We wanted to create the look and atmosphere Zaap were after with heavy use of creative print, lighting and signage. The authentic look was the crucial part that we couldn’t lose sight on. With that in mind we first looked to create multiple light boxes with Thai brand logos and text on them and to stick to the theme of an authentic Thai market.

We gave the boxes the appearance of being weathered with various paint effects to appear a little scratched up rather than the brand-new shiny pieces, which wouldn’t go with the restaurants aesthetic. The boxes were installed by hanging them from the ceiling using large chains to give an industrial look.

The biggest feature in our revamp of Zaap is the stunning 5x2.5meter wall mounted light box which we printed on our recycled plastic bottle fabric, remaining sustainable as always. The fabric was printed using day to night printing.

This method involves printing layers of colour with a white layer in the middle which means that, when unlit, the scene appears as a day scene. But once the lightbox is turned on it cleverly reveals the moon and stars in the sky and lights up all the streetlights in the image. Customers are truly transported to Thailand, watching the stars emerge at night!

To make the Zaap logo stand out as much as possible in the space, we created huge faux neon lighting spelling out Zaap. But we didn’t stop there! We wanted to carry the branding we were set to do on the inside space out to the front of the restaurant too. So, to do this we created giant hedge letter spelling out Zaap to be placed in front of the outdoor dining space so that it created an amazing entrance for customers walking in.

Our main focus with this project, as it is with all projects we are tasked with, was to ensure we did everything we could to electrify the space that we’re given by the client. The final result on this project was stunning and covered every aspect of what Imageco are about, from the expertise of project management to the creative problem solving of making the light boxes.