Award-winning London design studio Run For The Hills are brimming with excitement to unveil their latest hospitality design project – a super-fly cocktail bar called Heartbreaker. The venue launched in Worthing, the pretty seaside town in West Sussex being dubbed the new Brighton and it’s the brainchild of Ben Thompson, indie rock band Two Door Cinema Club’s drummer.

We don’t know where he finds the time, but in and around his music, and travelling the world gigging live, Ben’s been busy building a hospitality empire. He has two other successful sites, Manuka Bar and Jungle, so Heartbreaker will be his third and most ambitious yet. Ben had been following designers Run For The Hills for a while and felt this new project was perfect for them. They in turn jumped at the chance to bring Ben’s vision to life: to create a world-class hot spot in the heart of the British coastline – to rival some of the coolest venues in London, New York and LA.

The studio’s design team, under Founding Creative Director Chris Trotman, started by exploring trends in the global cocktail scene, exploring styles and moods with Client Ben to hone down the aspirations for the brand:

“We wanted to create a ‘character’ behind the name, and came up with this concept of a bad cupid, who rather than making people fall in love, goes around breaking hearts and mischievously pairing incompatible people ”

The team then set about designing a number of creative routes for the brand identity and logos, playing with typography, brand colour palette and illustration styles. A super cool direction emerged with creative concepts for in-venue signage, way-finding, drinks coaster, menu design and fun, theatrical touch points across the venue. The brand’s tone of voice is playful and sexy.

The new bar launched discreetly as all the best do. Guests approach a mysterious entrance, with minimal branding and super tight beams of light onto a statement door and bespoke mosaic tiled floor. Once inside, they pass through a thick velvet door curtain, and feel the full impact of the venue’s dark and moody vibes, with an uninterrupted view straight down the barrel of the venue’s hero cocktail bar.

The show-stopping horse-shoe-shaped bar takes centre stage within the space, with a dramatic over-bar light installation designed by RFTH, in a mix of refracted light, antique mirror and mesh. The bar below is dressed in reflective materials and wrapped in layers of light; from soft washes across metallic tiles within the front bar arches to the glitter-fleck counter top and rear illumination of colourful apothecary glassware to the back bar. Light-sheet underlighting and soft glow projections on shelving makes the bottles and liquids glow beautifully.

Run For The Hills carefully infused subtle branding into the smallest of details, including bespoke wallpapers and custom designed fabrics on banquettes, comfy stools and sofas. Using patterns that key into the brand’s visual identity, some featuring Bad Cupid’s arrows, others taken from forms in the logo, others springing off from the collection of brand illustrations created for the project and Heartbreaker’s website.

Cocktails will be served on lounge lizard reflective mirror tops, with others in antique brass and timber edged marbles in pinks, blushes and star-burst dark glitters. The design team also designed a neon with the words “Love Will Tear Us Apart” – song lyrics channelling the spirit of heartbreak. Other custom designed infinity mirror neons add insta-wow factor across the venue, adding to the take no prisoners design scheme.