Toni Black, Interior Design Director, Blacksheep, discusses the studio’s pioneering approach to visual storytelling and how they are revolutionising today’s restaurant and bar spaces.
“At Blacksheep, we like to approach design differently; crafting new design narratives from solid foundations that deliver meaningful brand experiences. The Blacksheep creative process is built around by what we call ‘the 5D’s’. Our Delve (first) stage is a crucial part that allows our designers to immerse themselves into the brand and uncover/develop the stories that define them.
At the start of every project, we take a ‘delve’ to immerse ourselves into the project landscape, culture, historic context and people that define the space. We are lucky to have an exceptional pool of talented creatives in the Blacksheep team; from strategists, architects, interior designers, conceptual designers to brand experience specialists, who work together to deconstruct and evaluate the research findings to form a strong essence for the brand story.
We might start with a simple idea/thought or muse that brings to mind a feeling and connection that we want to draw into the space, looking at the brand history and context of the locality and what important threads we can interweave into the story. Collaboration is key for us to achieve the very best design and brand proposition. Throughout each project, our brand and interiors team work closely together, creating the foundation for a compelling and imaginative narrative, adding new chapters between us that evolve and expand the story.
With every project, there is the opportunity to create a narrative that captures and excites guests as soon as they step through the door. On one of our most recent hotel F&B projects for the Prince de Galles, a Luxury Collection Hotel, in Paris, we were working with a historic Art Deco canvas that we couldn’t touch and had to reimagine how we could portray the Akira Back dining experience.
The storytelling was inspired by ‘Japanisme’ – an art movement by the French to describe the craze for Japanese art and design in the West. We drew influence from Parisian cooking rituals, Japanese cultural aesthetics and embraced a modern materiality that enlivens the existing 1920’s interiors, enhancing the entire hotel F&B experience. To bring the story to life, we created considered touch points around the restaurant space such as ambient lighting, spatial design, material tactility and curated art statements, whilst ensuring that we embraced the beauty of André Arfvidson designed building.
We don’t look at projects as just an interior space but consider the whole brand experience from start to finish and beyond. We are currently working on a luxury project in Mayfair where we have developed an entire brand experience, creating a host of micro experiences that guests can engage and interact with.
I think post-pandemic people want to feel more connected with a greater sense of belonging. Hospitality spaces need to work harder to achieve this and if their storytelling is successful, the guest will be intrigued during their first visit and want to discover more of the story on their return. It’s important for us to challenge and educate our client partners on how storytelling is not just for design’s sake but holds many diverse layers that feed into all aspects of the brand experience.
The challenge is to create captivating and significant stories that will evolve and stand the test of time. As a creative studio, we always want to be forward-thinking and innovative in the way we present a narrative, repurposing and recreating elements where possible that have their own story to tell. In this way, each story is authentic and unique, creating deep rooted brand connections.”
www.blacksheep.uk.com | IG: @blacksheepcreates
