Journaling Project No.3 - Operating: Playing vs. Listening vs. ‘It's own erotic'

Barthesian Analyis

“Beethoven’s deafness designates the lack wherein resides all signification; it appeals to a music that is not abstract or inward, but that is endowed, if one may put it like this, with a tangible intelligibility, with the intelligible as tangible.” Barthes (p. 152) 

The way in which Barthes' analysis about Beethoven's deafness is framed as a metaphor for how absence creates palpable meaning can be linked to my process of developing a high-end Italian restaurant brand as well. His idea — that meaning arises not from abundance but from lack, and that true expression is not abstract or internal but tangibly intelligible — guides how I think about crafting both the seen and unseen elements of the brand experience.

The private components of this project — researching regional Italian culinary traditions, refining brand language, choosing branding materials, and testing out different typographies — function like a score or rehearsal. They are internal strategies and decisions, rich in intention but invisible to the eventual diner. Yet, like Beethoven composing music he could no longer hear, I find myself designing for a sensory experience that I can only partially control once it leaves the studio.

The public face — the restaurant’s atmosphere, menu design, signage, and spatial layout — translates those internal, deliberate choices into something tangibly intelligible. I am not asking my guests to understand and grasp the research behind my design choices, to comprehend why I chose to work with the color palette that I did, for example. Yet, ideally I would like them to feel it, to feel how the intelligible practice becomes a tangible experience.

Ultimately, just like a musical performance, this brand development could be re-made or re-installed. Its essence and authenticity could be reinterpreted in another geographical context, timeline, or medium, allowing it to take shape in a completely different form. In a way, one could say that the restaurant becomes not just a static brand, but a living score: composed, performed/installed, and endlessly bound to reimagined performance.

Final Project Progress

I have successfully finalized my designs and received all necessary prints to hand in for the show. The only thing I need to re-create is the food menu, as the finishing didn't turn out as I wanted it to be.