Runner Up Bar at Collingwood Yards | Laminex Project Feature

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Runner Up Bar, on the rooftop of the Collingwood Yards Arts Precinct, has its tongue firmly in its cheek. By employing a little self-deprecation and humour to the Melbourne arts hub, a beautiful and open facility that caters to artists, creatives and cultural organisations, the bar manages to diffuse the earnestness and ‘artsy-ness’ of the building, simply by not taking itself too seriously.

Runner Up Bar has a kind of familiarity about it; retro without the pastiche, fun without the novelty, it’s warm and inviting, like a good friend’s home. Except, this friend is an expert with type, brand, design and print – clearly has a great sense of humour - and as a result nothing feels forced or out of place. It’s a place you’d like to stay a while, which is a good thing when you’re at a bar.

"I don't really like going into a bar that seems really over designed... I like to let the space and the experience lead," says Tom Shanahan, designer and director of Confetti Studio and partner of the ‘second-best bar in town’, Runner Up Bar.

Tom points out that “we had the luxury to be able to approach different touchpoints like the tables and menus and treat them as more one-off things rather than a really tight branding system, which I think gives it a bit of an eclectic and lively energy."

This is felt the moment you walk in and is so often the explanation of why some spaces feel instantly comfortable or calming while others less so. Runner Up hits the nail on the head. There’s no pretention or self-importance, just some great colours and branding that has just enough of the handmade mixed with just enough of the professional to put you at ease. All at once, it seems to say, ‘eat, drink, have a good time. Grab a table, relax,’ and suddenly, a magnum looks a like a great idea, perhaps some chips too.

Tom worked with his brother Craig, a talented carpenter and cabinet maker from Mood Workshop - a joinery and furniture design studio in Heidelberg to complete the space. The tables, despite their primary-coloured charm, disguise a considerable amount of complexity, but with the concept in place, Craig devised a way to achieve their vintage shop appeal.

“Tom said to me he wanted to make some tables but he didn't have any budget. So, I asked him what is it you want to do? And he goes, is there any way we can do patterns like this? I tell him we could do something like that and maybe we could do it in Laminex colours,” says Craig as he describes the early development.

Craig used Laminex Carrara Bianco, Laminex China Blue (discontinued, Laminex Portsea as alternative), Laminex Pillarbox, Laminex Olympia Yellow (discontinued, Laminex Golden Wattle as alternative), along with Formica Natale Walnut to create the multi-panelled, zigzag and curved cuts that culminate in Runner Up’s distinctive tables.

“There's a few ways you could do it,” explains Craig, “but I'm really good at knowing how to make things in really simple ways,” laughs Craig, “so we bought the low-pressure melamine panels, and we cut the different shapes out on the CNC machine in the different colours, completely cutting them out and then sticking them to a substrate.”

Using a strong, moisture resistant glue Craig made sure they weren’t going anywhere, “I suggested that they cover it with a clear Perspex to protect it. So that's what they did. They had someone put a timber edge around the outside with a lip to drop the Perspex in and caulk it to keep the moisture out.”

“We like laminate because it's quite hardy. And we went down this path of looking for different existing vintage laminate tables, but the ones we found weren't quite right for the space. We liked having pops of colour and that was always part of the brand for the bar, so, we started investigating the Laminex product range. So, I thought about how we could potentially jam some textures and colours together from that range and maybe create something a bit more interesting. I spoke to Craig about it and he had a great idea and some great equipment to make it happen,” explains Tom on how it all came together.

Adhering to Tom’s irreverent approach, one of the tables has arrows, coming from several directions pointing at one person. Dubbed the ‘The Anxiety Table’ it deliberately makes the lucky/unlucky patron in the seat the focus of the table. Essentially, it’s a conversation starter, but aesthetically, it’s the tongue in cheek that gives Runner Up Bar it’s fun.

"We spent a lot of time just trying to reign it in and take it away from something that could potentially feel pretentious. We're riding the edge of being dry and tongue in cheek. And I guess having these tables helped us do that."

This kind of self-effacing approach seems to be a feature of the Shanahan’s, casually dismissing any difficulty or troubles while leaving you with the good times – the traits of any good bar, one could say. Hospitable, entertaining, knowing when to step in, and maybe even more importantly, step out, Runner Up has established itself with this sensibility.

Runner Up is what it is, because the only thing that should be taken seriously in a bar is the fun, and you don’t become the second-best bar in town by being serious.

“We put marble laminate with timber laminate. It’s probably the first time in history that those two laminates exist together,” laughs Tom.

Learn more about Confetti Studio and Mood Workshop.