DESIGNER FILE 047
Clients are employing us to create their space and they expect us to be on it, rather than doing something faddy that looks good on social media.
9 We have to adapt to changes
Tere’s been a massive shift in the hospitality industry since the pandemic, which has drastically affected how people work. For example, the way people travel to work in London on fewer days each week now puts extra pressure on certain key days at bars and restaurants when before there’d be a constant flow. Now, Wednesday and Tursday are the key weekdays.
Tis affects how we design these hospitality spaces. Venues are having to adapt to become more multi-use and flexible spatially. Tey’re looking for other ways of driving revenue at quieter times, such as hosting private hire, supper clubs or TED-talk style events.
Tis added pressure means that budgets and time frames have got tighter in the hospitality industry. We’re talking about money much more than we used to – the budget comes up almost from day one. And clients want to get the work done faster, as the longer they’re closed, the more they’re losing. I think these changes are here to stay – flexible working won’t disappear. At the same time, there are also changes in the meetings and events world, as companies explore more engaging ways to entice the guest, that are tied in with new F&B [food and beverage] offers.
Clockwise, from far left Situated above London’s iconic Borough Market, Roast has been a staple of the dining scene for over two decades. 3Stories’ role here was to redesign the brand and interior
7 Making mistakes is part of the process Te more you learn from these, the better you become as a designer.
Junior team members can be scared of making mistakes, and can feel that they need to know everything and have the concept solved very quickly. But sometimes you have to work through the creative process in order to learn what does and doesn’t work. You can learn through this and begin to understand the client more. And the design outcome will turn out a lot stronger.
When you’re reviewing work and are in a safe space, it’s fine to do this.
Everyone makes mistakes, but I think it feels less acceptable to show imperfection nowadays, maybe because of things like Instagram, where the world is projected as polished and perfect.
8 You have to live the industry in order to be able to design for it
You can’t design a hospitality space without knowing what’s going on in the hospitality industry. We’re designing for the human experience, so we need to be able to understand why people want to go to these spaces in order to create an impact with our design. Our studio culture is to go out to see concepts and formulate an opinion. We need to educate ourselves by going out to see why, for example, that hotel ten minutes down the road might be doing better than the one we’re working on. You’ll only find out by going and experiencing it.
Technology can make us a little bit lazy as designers, but by getting out there, we can build up a picture of the industry beyond the world of Pinterest and everything else online.
10 As designers, we have more power than we think in pushing sustainable agendas I love what I do and I love the industry. But I hate the waste – it’s my bugbear. There’s the obvious waste of ripping out a whole restaurant that’s only three years old. But it’s not just the client’s responsibility to be sustainable. As designers, we’re controlling what things are put in front of the client in order to sell the concept. We’re the ones selecting a material, or designing something in a certain way, and that has an impact on what natural resources are used, and what these go through in the manufacturing process.
We have to be smart in how we tackle this. Rather than just wanting to please the client, we should be more conscious about what we’re using and specifying. If, for example, there are two tiles that might look similar but have very different environmental impacts, we should make sure that clients know that both options exist.
We need to really think and question everything, to up our game and be aware of how much say we really have. And hopefully this’ll lead to smarter and more meaningful outcomes rather than just nice- looking designs.
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