Noah Johnson - The Little Room

ROLE: LETTERING / ARCH-VIS

PENCIL, ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR,
AUTODESK MAYA, UNREAL ENGINE

THE LITTLE ROOM | LOS ANGELES

In addition to The Little Room logo, I was asked to design a new facade as part of the restaurant’s buildout. This created an opportunity to bring branding into the architecture itself, with custom lettering that complemented—but didn’t replicate the main logo.

TLR Facade Render

TLR Facade Construction

TLR Facade Unveiled

PROCESS

To reinforce the concept that the restaurant was inspired by the history of Los Angeles, I drew from the visual language of my favorite Los Angeles municipal buildings built in the 1930s. Many of these structures, a blend of stripped classicism and art deco, informed a design that pairs deco detailing with a Greco-Roman silhouette—creating a facade that feels like it’s always been there.

Knowing the structure would be poured concrete, with ornamentation set into a recessed plane using wood forms, I began by drawing the "Little Room" lettering. From there, I built out the design in 3D modeling software. My renderings were rough compared to the 3D artists I’d worked with in the game industry—but they served their purpose: communicating the design intent clearly through diagrams and renders for the engineering and construction teams.