A jigsaw puzzle of textures
Tristán Moziman, also known as Chucho, decided to open a restaurant specialising in Argentine meats in Santander (Spain). He wanted to transmit, in one image, the qualities of
world-famous Argentine meat. It is a high-quality meat thanks to the country’s wide open spaces and optimal climate for raising the finest breeds of cattle.
That traditional aspect combined with the typical atmosphere of old-fashioned butcher shops was what he communicated to the Bathco Atelier artists.
Atelier interpretation
The project developed for this restaurant had a series of clear references. One of them was the representation of a cow using different types of leather in a patchwork design. The artists studied how to translate that representation to pictorial-
ceramic language. They opted to propose a drawing of a steer in the style of a jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle pieces would represent the different cuts of meat. Black pigment was used to outline all the animal’s contours and label each of the parts,
alluding to the illustrations that traditionally decorated butcher shops and delicatessens to show the different cuts of meat and the names of each.
Pieces
To differentiate the parts of the body, the artists used a different texture and colour for each one. The resulting shapes were worked using different types of brushes, Japanese bamboo brushes, sponges, and even plastic ones. The different paint densities also
played an important role. To complete the composition, both the labels and the logo were created using ceramic decals. The representation of the animal, vintage in style and reminiscences, was counterbalanced by the use of textures and a rectified
tile background in an elongated format, which gave the composition a contemporary feel. The mural became the focal point of the space, in addition to being the graphic image of the restaurant.
