Teaism Tea House

Where: Washington, D.C.:  DuPont Circle, Lafayette Square, Penn Quarter

Who: Co-founders Michelle Brown, Linda Neumann

What: Shelter was asked to name, brand and provide interior finishes/consulting for tea house serving teas and an eclectic menu ranging through Thai, Indian, Chinese and Japanese cuisine. “All we had at the beginning was the space at Dupont Circle,” client Michelle Brown remembers. “It was too small for a full-service restaurant but had all this architectural charm. We brought Shelter in and talked about the possibilities. Scott was the one who said, ‘I always wanted to open a tea house.’ We were inspired—we could see how this would work with our philosophy. The rest is history.”

The Challenge: The vision informing the clients’ original DuPont Circle tea house, located literally next door to D.C.’s then flagship Starbucks, was the antithesis of 1980s caffeine-fueled culture. Committed to serving healthy alternative food and teas in a welcoming, even meditative atmosphere, they were concerned their tea house might be ahead of the curve even for “early adaptors”—Americans in general aren’t big tea drinkers, nor do they know much about its varieties and health benefits. Could the pair’s  limited start-up cash produce the results they would need to last long enough to educate the public?

Our Solution: To create Teaism’s strong yet accessible brand identity, Shelter researched the philosophy and elements of ancient tea house ceremonies. Our updated graphic and environmental design solution was grounded in the concept of “wabi sabi”— loosely translated as” rustic beauty,” the essential Japanese aesthetic .  The name itself comes from a passage in “The Book of Tea” by Kakuzo Okakura: “Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence.”

Teaism’s logo was inspired by Asian calligraphy depicting a tea cup with three leaves joined to form a flower. Patterns from material used in scroll paintings were incorporated into menus, business cards and packaging, with the logo positioned like a signature “chop.”  For the interior finishes, we applied rustic ochre tones using a magnified water color wash technique with tea plant imagery (our work for newer locations uses a variety of techniques and finishes.) The eye-catching 15-foot banners along the façade responded to our client walking us two blocks away from the location and saying, “I want to be able to read the signs from here.”

Happy Endings: The concept was right on time—Teaism was embraced immediately by the neighborhood and became a big hit. Two locations followed shortly afterward, along with a tea shop and website selling tea and tea-making wares.