Life designing bars for the world’s best venues.

‘To be honest, the first station I ever drew was on the back of a napkin, sitting at a bar. I got so worked up with the possibilities, the bartender asked me to cool it a little bit’.

Alex Ruas, the co-founder of Behind Bars Agency, is a bartender at heart. 17 years working in bars around the world has given him a pretty good understanding of all that was wrong in the process of designing a good bar.

‘In 2014 we were developing the concept on an important project in Oslo. We knew the bar had certain aspirations when it came to service and quality and we needed a bar to match this. The stations needed to be able to do big volumes of drinks at a very high standard, and this meant the bar had certain requirements.

‘The resistance we met when trying to convince the bar supplier to give us something specific for this concept was baffling. Everything was: ‘no, it will be hard, it will be expensive, it can’t be done’.

‘That resistance really motivated us to push Behind Bars Agency to what it is today’.

The design process really has come a long way since then. Behind Bars’ dedication to optimal working stations combined with a clear design aesthetic is in large part thanks to the addition of Head of Design, Samantha MacRae.

“The resistance we met when trying to convince the bar supplier to give us something specific for this concept was baffling. Everything was: ‘no, it will be hard, it will be expensive, it can’t be done’.”

Samantha joined the team in 2017, and the development in the design process has been rapid.

‘I’m an architect by training, but more generally, it’s the higher ambition of a seamless combination between aesthetic and functionality that really drives me. Leading the design team at Behind Bars means I get to work closely with Alex, Sam and the team who have such a passion, but also serious understanding about how a bar station should function. We all see the bar as the heart of a venue - and working together means our projects result in pieces with incredible quality, enduring functionality and absolutely smashing good looks.’

‘We have a big focus on allowing our clients to fully understand their stations in Virtual Reality before we start production and we’re constantly exploring how to use technology in our designs because we’re lucky enough to work on projects with amazing clients all around the world.’

And this commitment to tech is really allowing Behind Bars to reach a global client base, as Alex explains:

‘We were on a call with clients based in Dubai with their architects in Florence, and us in Oslo. It was like we were all partying together in Cyber - Space! Everyone was able to comment on the space and experience it together which is a wonderful thing. It also really helps the design process and to get things perfect, because we can make adjustments and make comments in real time, inside the real space’.

And things are only getting bigger and better.

The Behind Bars team will add another designer to the department early in 2021 to help with a big increase in projects.

‘We’re really looking forward to growing the team’ Samantha said. ‘Our direction does not change, but we will be able to really grow our capacity to take in more projects’.

And more bars from Behind Bars is a good thing for everyone.

Could you be our new designer?

Do you have strong skills in SolidWorks or Fusion 360, AutoCAD, or other computer drafting softwares?

Would you like to join our young and dynamic team in Oslo?

From Napkin Sketches to Cyberspace

Detail, Hard Work, No Shortcuts

No Space for Dead Space