Studio YOD Group was established in 2004 and specializes in commercial interiors. YOD projects are characterized by conceptual details, natural textures, well-thought-out lighting scenography and accents that become the hallmark of the institution. Warm shades of ocher-honey gamut are found in studio interiors more often than other colors. The team's portfolio includes restaurants in Dubai, New York, Riyadh, Punta Cana, Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro and other cities of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Nepiyvoda and Dmytro Bonesco, founders of YOD Group
The founders of the YOD Group studio, Volodymyr Nepiyvoda and Dmytro Bonesco, created the interiors of one and a half hundred institutions, and also launched two of their own. Win Bar in Kyiv and the six-story MAD Bars House in Lviv are restaurants in which they became not only designers, but also co-founders.
Toffees and caramels
Dmytro: I grew up in Kharkiv, and for as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be creative. Despite the fact that my parents wanted to see me in a technical profession, they supported my artistic inclinations. At first, I was engaged in drawing in the group of the House of Pioneers, then I graduated from the Repin art school and entered the lyceum at Khudprom.
With school subjects, except for humanities, things were not going well. But at the institute, these difficulties ended, because a goal appeared. When you understand why you are learning it, obstacles are easy to overcome, it is no longer mathematics for the sake of mathematics, but part of the general meaning that is important to you.
Restaurant Spicy NoSpicy, Kyiv. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
ВolOdymir: I spent my childhood in a village in the Kyiv region. Two older brothers and father were builders. My father headed a large construction and assembly department. From a fairly early age, all my free time was spent on construction.
My brothers worked as stonemasons, and on weekends I went to help them as a helper. Later, there was a carpentry shop, where I got a job during the summer vacation. There I washed, cleaned, took out shavings, and when the workers went to lunch, I turned on the machines, tried to do something myself. At this rate, by the end of school, I had mastered key construction specialties in practice.
Molfar Bar is an establishment on the top floor of MAD Bars House, Lviv. Photo: Yevhen Avramenko
I realized that you can build something with your own hands, build a wall, but your possibilities will always be limited. It's another matter when you draw a project, issue a technical task and involve many people in the work. Then the scale of your activity changes.
A road paved with yellow bricks
Dmytro: In the process of studying at the lyceum and then at the institute, I was looking for a direction in which I would develop. My first part-time job was in construction — dismantling walls in a hotel. Everything was interesting to me, and I tried myself in different directions. As a graphic designer, he worked with an awning company, modeled virtual cities in a game development studio, and designed cabins for private planes in another company. Each of these areas had shortcomings that I could not tolerate.
The work on the games was routine, every person there is a cog with limited tasks of the same type. In the design of aircraft cabins, years pass from the beginning of the project to the result. When I got into interior and architectural design, I liked the fact that you need to solve a whole set of tasks that require different skills. And these tasks themselves are often atypical — each restaurant has its own scale, concept, and storytelling. You start each object with a clean slate.
Buzz Bar is an establishment on the fifth floor of MAD Bars House, Lviv. Photo: Yevhen Avramenko
ВolOdymir: I had a desire to go beyond the scope of work as a construction worker. I went to Kyiv and entered the College of Art Modeling and Design. There he studied graphics, sketching, how to present his project, formulate an idea and convey it to the customer. During my studies, I had the opportunity to work in a studio that created establishments for the Kozyrna karta network.
From our group, 10 people went there, but after six months, only I remained, because the schedule was really tough, and the requirements were high. There I studied the restaurant business in practice: I ran 4-5 facilities in different cities at the same time. Everything changed when the manager decided to appoint me as the main decorator. I didn't like this idea - I wanted to do projects from start to finish and develop further in the direction of architecture and design.
Buzz Bar is an establishment on the fifth floor of MAD Bars House, Lviv. Photo: Yevhen Avramenko
I had to go nowhere. Without own objects in the portfolio, but with ambitions to create something unique. About half a year later, the customer, whom we met while working on one of the "Trump card" properties, called. He suggested that my colleague and I take part in the tender for his new project. It was about developing the design of the Cosmopolit hotel in Kharkiv. We won this tender because we proposed several innovative ideas for 2004. For example, to combine a bedroom with a room or to mount a shower drain in the floor, without a tray. The Kharkiv Cosmopolit Hotel became our first object.
Golden antelope
Dmytro: Working in commercial design involves clear deadlines, a budget, and a goal. If the client wants to make a restaurant "for himself", this is most likely a non-working story. When we hear such a request, we understand that before us is a person who is not fully aware of what he is doing. In commercial establishments, the key factor is return on investment.
Volodymyr Nepiyvoda and Dmytro Bonesco, founders of YOD Group. Photo: Ulyana Vinnychuk
The success of the institution we worked on is important for us. Part of the responsibility lies with us. Designing a project that will fail would be a blow to our reputation as well.
Design is not just about aesthetics. Zoning affects the quality of service, ergonomics affects the format, light programs the behavior of customers. At the same time, design is only one of the factors that influence the success of the establishment. There remain many "gray" areas that we, as designers, have no influence on. The realization of this prompted us to think more broadly and to cover adjacent areas with our work.
Design cannot prevail over expediency. We never do a project for the sake of a beautiful picture in a magazine. This approach is possible for a museum, showroom or concept store. Restaurants and hotels live by different rules
We have come to the point that, in addition to interior design, we advise clients on business management. Over the years of practice and one and a half hundred implemented objects, we have assembled a team of partners, each of whom closes a specific task at the stage of launching a restaurant and during its operation. This is how we grew from YOD Design Lab to YOD Group, a structure that is not only about design, but also about business in general: branding, marketing, management.
Samna restaurant, Kyiv. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
Iodine formula
ВolOdymir: We are starting work on a new research object. We study the place where it is located, analyze the specifics of the space. We create a legend of the institution, which is based on real facts. A good legend is a universal story that can be developed and deepened over the years. For example, Deep Bar in Dnipro, which opened at the beginning of autumn. This is an institution with a specific room configuration.
On the first floor, there is only a small hall with an area of 30 square meters. m, and the rest of the space is a large basement. We created the Roots and Sprouts concept for him. In the upper hall, they placed a flower shop and a coffee shop with several tables, and a bar with roots hanging from the ceiling was made below. Legend has it that these are plant roots from the shop upstairs. The theme of deepening is multifaceted and philosophical, it can be developed and manifested infinitely.
Restaurant Salobie, Chernihiv. Photo: Ihor Karpenko
Thoughtful lighting scenography, tactility, as well as a certain originality of design are important to us. Although the latter is a conditional category. Because design cannot prevail over expediency. We never design for the sake of a pretty picture in a magazine. This approach is possible only for a museum, showroom or concept store. Restaurants and hotels live by different rules.
Guests, as a rule, note not the design, but the atmosphere of the establishment. Atmosphere works when everything is balanced. Comfort, tactile sensations, sound, aroma, light that reveals something and hides something. The right light in an evening establishment creates a certain spontaneity, it immerses the client in a fairy tale. Not a specific one, but one that he fantasizes himself on the border of light and shadow. Thanks to this, the guest finds himself in an ideal interior that exists only in his head. This is how the light is thought out in Kyiv's Samna, Win Bar, and Dnipro's Deep Bar.
Restaurant Salobie, Chernihiv. Photo: Ihor Karpenko
Dmytro: We love natural materials and timeless solutions, we make design so that it can live for a long time. Establishments that open under the pressure of trends are closed quite quickly. This is a natural process. Our creativity is born from limitations. The client determines the budget, footage, direction. The complex of these raw data defines the vector for the design.
Warm range
Dmytro: In our projects, color never appears just because we like it. It is always related to the format, concept and philosophy of the institution. For example, let's take the Win Bar. It is about naturalness, the vine and the land. Therefore, the interior is dominated by terracotta shades, wood, and warm earthy tones.
First Casino has other tasks. It is necessary to maintain a sense of drive and dynamics in the guest. To make him not want to leave for as long as possible. It's like Disneyland for adults. A unique pattern on the carpet, an installation of glass jellyfish on the ceiling, a lighting scheme and aromatics work to solve this problem.
Color does not exist in a vacuum. It is difficult to understand how successful he is, looking at the picture on the Internet. Until you visit this establishment, touch its surfaces, smell its aromas, you will not know whether it is a good design or not. For example, our favorite deep mustard color is perceived as warm and comfortable. But you can apply it on a glass tabletop, which will be cold when you touch it with your elbows. You will definitely put the glass next to the fire and hear the sound of glass hitting glass. These are uncomfortable emotions, and color will not change them. In addition, it changes depending on the lighting.
Ryba Pila Restaurant, Kyiv. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
The rules of the spectral circle that we were taught at the institute do not work like that in real life. There is no universal pill. I am absolutely against mediocre decisions based on stereotypes that a strip club should be burgundy and a pub should be brown. You need to know these rules and codes in order to break them and go beyond. Every time you need to find unique combinations and rely on pragmatic solutions.
ВolOdymir: If an accent color is needed in an institution, we often achieve it not by painting, but by a certain chemical method. Buddha-Bar New York has blue accents - an oxidized copper wall and an installation made of similarly oxidized plates. Thanks to this approach, the color turned out to be interesting and multi-layered, you want to look at it. If a large mass of ocher shade is required, we use corten. This makes the story visually more complex, gives not only color, but also tactility, a 3D effect.
Color works for atmosphere. That is why there are many honey, brick, ocher shades in our establishments. They soothe, envelop, create a feeling of warmth. These colors are similar to browned food, whiskey or bourbon - all these are pleasant and calm associations.
Wild honey
ВolOdymir: At some point, we came to the point that we wanted to learn the restaurant business from the inside out and open our own establishment. This experience allowed us to save time and resources on errors for our customers. This is a separate in-depth topic, which has cost maps, menu costs, logistics, number of people, shifts, staff costs, many other details. We needed to find out what affects what. When we went through this path, we got a lot of insights. We understood how much rent can cost, what moments in the organization are unacceptable, how zoning should work, and a million other nuances.
Win Bar paid for itself in less than two years, which is a successful indicator for the restaurant industry. He also collected all the professional awards. After that, we began to speak with customers in their language - now they saw that our advice can be trusted.
Deep Bar, Dnipro. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
Our second project became even more ambitious. MAD Bars House is a new brand that we launched in the break between two lockdowns in ultra-competitive Lviv. Five bars under one roof, a unique concept of increasing degree with each floor. In the interior of MAD Bars House, we have shown respect for the old building where it is located, as well as for the historical background - the shoe workshops that gave the name to Shevska Street.
Dmytro: When we announced Win Bar, everyone expected that as designers we would make a bright image project for ourselves that everyone would talk about and that would be printed in all the magazines. Instead, we've made a relaxed establishment that people want to come back to. Not about the picture, but about the content. This is also an image project from the point of view of its commercial success and permanent audience, but there is a minimum of design.
The Martian Chronicles
Dmytro: It is important for me to go beyond the boundaries, work cross-disciplinary and create innovations. We are still implementing them in our projects, but we would like to take a radical step. To create an object that will fundamentally change the culture of hospitality, establish new rules and new standards. Use technologies that do not yet exist. It can be a space of neutral white color, where there is no light, no shadow, nothing that would distract from the product. And the food itself appears, for example, directly from the table through the membrane.
Gemini Roastery, Kyiv. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
Today, design is the glue between function and aesthetics. We are going to the point where this binding element will disappear. Our habits change, and spaces are gradually transformed. I want to create an innovative establishment that will destroy the stereotypes of what a hospitality facility should be.
Gemini Roastery, Kyiv. Photo: Andriy Bezuglov
ВolOdymir: At school we were asked what we wanted to be, and many dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Who would have thought that in some time guest flights into space will become a reality. The time is not far when it will be possible to realize the first bar on another planet. We are ready to create a design for it.
Text: Nadia Sheykina
