Starring a wordmark “rounded like a pearl,” Glasfurd & Walker’s brand for AMA freedives into the sea

Living up to its status as a hidden bar, the team behind AMA makes sure that it’s quietly tucked away in a corner of Vancouver’s Fraserhood. The only thing that gives it away is a custom, glowing orange sconce, that throws light through a metal cut logo at the entrance. The shadow, which quietly announces the Japanese cocktail and raw bar, is only visible when the sconce is lit in the evening – adding to the mystery of the space.

When Glasfurd & Walker began working on the identity for AMA, they quickly identified some inspiration-rich takeoff points – the retrofuturist slant of the interiors, the Japanese influence on the food, and the seafood-forward menu. However, it all started with the name – AMA meaning ‘sea women’ in Japanese, who are famed for free diving to collect pearls – and the resulting wordmark. The team set the design in a custom type, “reminiscent of flowing water and rounded like a pearl,” Creative Director Phoebe Glasfurd tells us. “The challenge was to strike a balance between the two juxtaposing ideas of fluidity and symmetry. The name being an ambigram, it would have been tempting to go with something more geometric and precise in its execution, but actively pushing this opened up the design to more interesting outcomes.” The team took care to iron out the details, such as the small ink traps within the letters, “which mirror ripples in the ocean when light hits the surface.”

The expressiveness of the custom wordmark is tempered by the clarity of Studio Muhittin Güneş’ Ranua, used as a supporting typeface. With its deep, linear ink traps that create contrast and a slightly wavy appearance, Ranua echoes the structure of the logo. “There’s also a sense of retro sci-fi, a kind of regimented imperfect quality to it up close, as if it was meant for a highly functional source of computer speech,” notes Glasfurd.

Elsewhere, the AMA world is flush with details. The coasters are splashed with illustrations of the underwater world, inspired by both surrealist airbrush art from the ’70s to the more traditional, anatomical drawings of ocean life. The chopstick holders are important too. Mirroring the shape of the wordmark, they are lined with mother of pearl – an added layer of tactility that underscores the theme, and elevates the experience of stepping into AMA, down to the tiniest details.

Glasfurd & Walker