Beer Mat(e)s

Idea:

One emerging theme from the project was the use of games as a platform for initiating social interaction between men accessing pubs. We created games on beer mats as an intervention to connect men and to initiate conversations in pubs.

Development:

We researched historical games, following on from our learning in the making of ROMANS! and experimented with the opportunities and limitations beer mats could offer- we didn’t want to add pieces so encouraged the players to use objects to hand as playing pieces- nuts, polo mints and coins for instance. We needed simple games that could be explained in a few lines, but that would be satisfying to play. In regards to design aesthetic, it was important that the graphic style was strong and not gimmicky, we steered towards an traditional yet stylish font and colour scheme, hinting at pub colours- red wine, soft rich furnishings, old wood.