Hospitality Design
Combing design thinking with visitor experience, storytelling, and coaching
“We asked Nicola and her team for her design alignment experience. Her holistic approach to all aspects of the business, brand, and customer journey, ensured we consider all aspects of the business and sustainability. That helped inform and drive business development”
Client testimonial
My appreciation of the customers’ physical, emotional, intellectual and sensory journeys from days designing for visitor attractions, was even more important when I entered the world of hospitality. I wanted to consider the end user’s experience from pre-visit through to post-visit engagement, not only in terms of designing the physical environment but also the design of the services all while integrating the client’s areas of expertise. Everyone who owns, works in or visits a hospitality experience or business needs to be considered. Hospitality design doesn’t begin or end with just good or clever use of spaces. It all needs to hang together to deliver the business’ objectives and crucially look to maximize financial return. Each detail should reflect the goals to add value and benefit the bottom line.
The subject of Hospitality design is vast. I have worked on projects from hotels in listed buildings, to steam cruise ships, restaurants, cafes, retail and boutique bed and breakfasts. Teasing out their unique brand aspects to sell their ideas.
Key skills: Weaving story and brand, managing complex strategies, business design and square footage usage, cost vs income, balancing design and the bottom line.
My early experience in film and set design was invaluable, in not only exposing me to many periods of design history but also for introducing me to social history. As a set designer I’d learned not only about all aspects of design but also from the trades about preservation building products and repair. Skills I got to use in hospitality design and specifically in historic built environments (reflecting and understanding a building’s story and social significance). The twist for me, as in visitor attractions, was working directly in the permanent built environment, as opposed to temporary structures (TV) my design had longevity. Therefore, projects were required to fit the standards of modern building regulations, planning and structural engineering, and my new education in building heritage and conservation – meant I had acquired relevant qualifications and expertise.
Additional Skills: health and safety requirements especially around Restaurants and kitchens. Factoring in the heavy use of commercial materials and furnishings for endurance, and to meet regulations like fire. My world was transformed to rub counts, commercial standards and options.
Tim Brown, CEO IDEO
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
In the early days of working with Granada Studio Tours, I worked with the Granada designers on a themed Sherlock Holmes hotel near the Castlefield site. The hotel was not only designed for tour customers but became popular in its own right because of the popularity at the time for themed hotels.
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE
After Granada, and after working in immersive themed attractions. I worked with Mather and Co. in various hospitality settings: For example, the refurbishment and branding of a First Choice Holidays steam cruise liner with all the usual principles of hospitality design at play. Unique to this experience was the need to consider fire protection and health and safety standards at sea. This introduced me to a whole new world of suitable materials, finishes, and furnishings. Not to mention factoring in buoyancy when designing the placement of the pool – only obvious when you think about it!
After researching how the ship originally looked in its early days, we recreated and updated environments with modern twists. This was the first time in the industry we were introduced to using Computer Aided Design (CAD). By providing samples to the CAD designer, we were able to produce mock-ups of the ship’s deck and interiors to our client in advance of the build.
A FIRM FAVOURITE
I was lucky enough work as part of the design team for Sally and Eamonn O’Loughlin of Eclectic Hotel Group on their new hotel Great John Street, Manchester. The holistic approach to this former Victorian schoolhouse meant the building essentially retained its sense of time, place, and social significance, whilst housing a hospitality experience, setting a new bar for a standard of luxury, eclectic, and bespoke design. Guests were cleverly catered for whilst making space for the building’s own story to shine through.
Case Study: Great John Street »
Areas of Work
Hi, I'm Nicola
- Award Winning Designer of Built Environments:
- Boutique hotels, cruise ships, film and television
- Social Entrepreneur & Advocate for Sustainable Change:
- Diabetes, End of Life Conversations, Sustainable/Green Communities & Environments
- Expert Coach
- Creatrix of the Alignment Process to cut through the biggest and most expensive obstacle to designing a space or a life that truly supports the desired outcomes: “I don’t really know what I want”
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Research
- Concept development – visioning – ideation
- Communication and collaboration
- Managing complex strategies
- Sequencing
- Finance – budgeting – procurement
- Profitable business design and the bottom line
- Sq footage vs usage vs income potential
- Technical and construction drawings
- Mood boards
- Mapping visitor journeys
- Working with architects, engineers, and fire depts for fire regulations and health and safety/ environmental issues
- Working with teams
Construction – plasterers – electricians – plumbers – decorators – joiners – bespoke makers and landscape architects /designers - Soft furnishers and set dressing
Qualifications
- First class honors degree – design for the communication media.
- Building heritage and conservation.
- Retrofitting buildings.