Roar Entices Pastry-Lovers With a Spunky Donut Brand Design

Roar’s spunky design for a Middle Eastern donut brand was conceived to entice and wow pastry-lovers. Hence the sugary-sweet rosy-pink accents, curvilinear furnishings, and unexpected features in some locations, like a claw machine, wall-mounted conveyor belt, and immersive technology. “Because a customer’s first impression typically forms in the first few seconds of entering, we created an immediately immersive environment that was a physical manifestation of the brand,” senior designer Sara Jamil says.

Other tantalizing details include neon lighting spelling out the shop name, angled and hung at different heights; textured leather in varied shades of hot pink; and walls clad in a metal-mesh grid that riffs on the corrugated chassis of Here-O’s first donut truck in Dubai.

But just as much consideration was given to the employee experience, which Roar addressed by devising the space for easy task-switching, firm founder and creative director Pallavi Dean explains. The bar’s small footprint is divided into discrete zones for service, dining, takeout, pickup, and payment—with just enough wiggle room left over for ogling treats du jour in the under-counter display case.