The Blue Cup Coffee Shop, Kyiv | Ukraine

A small, yet already famous among coffee gourmands, The Blue Cup coffee shop opened its doors a year ago in Kiev, Pushkinskaya str., 5. This autumn, 2015, the place reopened, as its space became twice as large, which in its turn required changes in design. The previous concept basic materials remained unaltered, as they add special spirit and atmosphere to the coffee shop. These include white tiles, white brick, grey ceramic floor, wooden ceiling and amber plywood.

The experience of two Ukrainian girls, designer Yova Yager and artist Nastya Ptichek for Kleydesign studio was creatively combined in this project. Owing to their creative synergies, this project speaks the language of The Red Book of Ukraine through pictures of plants and animals, depicted on its pages. The fresh interior suggests that the characters live on wallpapers, chairs and cushions, attracting the customers’ attention not only to their original appearance, but also to reasons that lead to the extinction of these particular fauna and flora species.

That is why, a bison is depicted with a pipe, a part of which is made of its horn; a lynx is wearing a hat with a fur pompom; a hare is associated with a rabbit’s foot, the symbol of good luck, but in order to avoid bloodshed, there is a hand of Fatima on the hare’s neck – also the symbol of fortune; a polecat symbolizes a fur collar, which is why he is depicted in a wool circle scarf. As for the black grouse, among the reasons for its extinction is a comprehensive list of human’s needs – consuming it as food or using in décor. That is why we see him wearing a beret with his feather. In addition, pictures show us plants that are dying out. They are more difficult to recognize as they are not as familiar to our eye as the animals are.  As we know, everything in nature is intertwined, so the disappearance of one species of plants may cause the disappearance of a certain species of animals.

Thus, Yova Yager and Nastya Ptichek launched a project “Zhuli-Buli” in the project “The Blue Cup coffee shop”, which portrays wild nature of Ukraine as it is, without violence and cruelty, but from a fairytales perspective.

The project is aimed at solving three important problems: raising the question of illegal extermination of plants and animals on the territory of Ukraine; helping environmental institutions and animals shelters by transferring a certain percentage of sale of all items with pictures of the project; the development of local art initiatives, welcoming those who are interested in art collaboration within the project.

About Kleydesign studio and Yova Yager

Yova Yager – Ukrainian designer, co-founder and owner of the design studio «Kleydesign». The workshop was founded in 2008 with partner Ira Miller. Activities of the workshop are very diverse. We create space, decoration, product design, art installations. Our favorite thing is to design and produce product design. We like to experiment with the quality and the properties of different materials. We participate in competitions, exhibitions, lectures, we shoot videos, our articles have been printed in design magazines and that's not all. Over the past three years, the studio has focused its activities in the field of commercial interiors: restaurants, bars and cafes. Our motto: we don't apply for genius, just create the mood. Humor and self-irony are the main components of our projects.