Description:
Busken Bakery has been a neighborhood bakery for over 90 years, and with the recent development of an adjacent public bike trail, the fourth-generation owners wanted to offer a brand presence along the trail. In the early years of the bakery, a 24-hour schedule gave rise to some unique traditions. Legend has it that Joe Busken, Sr. would leave a box of donuts at the back door for delivery drivers and the occasional patron to indulge in.
With the advent of a pandemic, the bakery needed to pivot and reinvent the way that it engaged with its patrons. A minuscule budget and a hyper-short construction window of only 28 days — to align with a National Donut Day opening — lead the design team to utilize a straightforward, graphic-heavy solution. Drawing inspiration from the iconic blue bakery packaging, a graphic color-blocking strategy was utilized to help distinguish a new walk-up window from a blight of other service docks, refrigeration units, and back of house infrastructure. A mural of the bakery’s founder interacts with the color blocking to amplify the effect, drawing the attention of passing pedestrians.
A viewing window elevated on a stage provides glimpses of fresh donuts being glazed to order, as customers, young and old, hungrily look on. The color-blocking is rigorous — anything passing through the demark of the awning is immediately saturated in the royal blue hue, broken only by glowing gold signage which acts as a beacon along the trail. Through a playful re-introduction of a legacy brand, the donut window is a theater of donut-making along the bike trail.
