Client

• Eleena Tan & Michael Tan

Location

• Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

Sector

• Cafe

• Bar

Services

• Brand Creation

• Logo

• Brand Assets & Style Guide

• Concept Development

• Customer Experience

• Copywriting

• Digital & Print Collateral

• Website Design & Development

• Social Media Content/Management

• Interior Concept

• 3D Renders

• Construction Documentation

• Interior Styling

• Signage

Brief

Sabi Sounds is a day-to-night listening café and record bar in Melbourne, created by the team behind Bar Selecta. The concept draws from the philosophy of “sabi,” meaning beauty that develops over time, shaping a space that evolves naturally from morning ritual to evening rhythm. By day, Sabi Sounds operates as a listening café inspired by Japanese and Korean bakeries, offering specialty coffee, matcha, mocktail infusions, and curated baked goods. By night, it transforms into an intimate record bar with highballs, Japanese beer, soju-style drinks, and hi-fi vinyl sessions. The venue is designed as a soulful, all-day environment where sound, flavour, and atmosphere shift seamlessly.

Concept Approach

Sabi Sounds centres on the idea of transition and texture. The design balances soft minimalism with analogue warmth, natural walnut tones, brushed steel, and tactile surfaces, creating a calm daytime setting for slow coffee and vinyl browsing. A curated record library anchors the space, encouraging interaction and discovery. As evening approaches, lighting lowers, sound deepens, and the room pivots toward rhythm and social energy. The menu mirrors this progression: delicate pastries and matcha by day, crisp highballs and Japanese-inspired drinks by night. Every element reinforces the philosophy of beauty evolving through time and use.

Challenges

Designing Sabi Sounds required carefully bridging two distinct yet connected experiences: an open, welcoming listening café at the front and the intimate, moody Bar Selecta record bar at the rear. The challenge was to create cohesion without repetition. SABI needed its own identity that is lighter, softer, daytime-driven, while still feeling intrinsically linked to Bar Selecta’s deeper, after-dark atmosphere.

Spatially, the connection had to feel intentional rather than transitional. Circulation between the two venues required clarity and flow, ensuring guests could move seamlessly from coffee to cocktails without disrupting either experience. Acoustically, the café environment demanded balance: enough warmth and texture to support vinyl listening without competing with the focused hi-fi immersion of the bar behind.

Outcome

The resulting identity feels refined yet relaxed. Clean typography and restrained graphic elements echo Japanese design principles, while subtle texture and tonal layering introduce warmth and soul. A neutral base palette is elevated with deeper evening tones, allowing the venue to shift mood without losing cohesion. Branding, interiors, and music programming work in harmony to create a continuous narrative from morning to midnight. Sabi Sounds emerges as a modern cultural hub where baked goods, vinyl, and hi-fi sound come together in a space that feels thoughtful, rhythmic, and timeless.